I feel people are a bit out of touch with how easy it is to get these "exclusive" credit cards if you just have a good credit score. The income is helpful but unnecessary for essentially everything but a Centurion.

Exactly. Amex get their income from a cut on purchases, and that cut is larger than any other provider. They then take this money and spend it on advertising to try and convince stupid people they are joining some exclusive "club".

okay, maybe not wealth signal. more of a pissing match.