I agree! For sure elitism. Judging by the downvotes, I wasn't clear that I didn't agree with the standpoint.

I think every ecosystem at points go through this "elitism" fad when it reaches a certain threshold of members. Seemingly to keep X being a niche they can identify with, instead of something mainstream some people only do for fun.

Point is, not exclusive to chess, just as gk1 pointed out.