I'll guess the word "elite" here is not really the best term to convey what parent meant. The phrase "valued in elite circles" at first made me think of George

I'll guess the word "elite" here is not really the best term to convey what parent meant. The phrase "valued in elite circles" at first made me think of George Soros types, in which case the values don't fit. But I think parent meant more of the avocado toast NPR/NYT column writer types when he said "elites", in which case the values described make more sense. I'll disagree on the point about ability to explain crypto protocols/algorithms. You're either in tech and have a body of knowledge that preps you to understand the details and then you might care about it, or you don't really care about how it works. I don't think there's a group of "elites" of any kind that care too much about you explaining how crypto works.