I think you're reading into something that isn't there. Umbrella terms can be used without disdain. It wasn't a highbrow comment, and I'm not about to go into a discussion on the merits of genre vs. literary or even the use of the terms, but it's clear that Zapffe's On the Tragic does not target the mass market, while the latest Tom Clancy does. Both can be engaging, depending on the reader, but the latter was written to "be as engaging and profitable as possible," the former was not.