> any well-understood or easy path to becoming high status will be shut down

Not shut down so much as exhausted by everyone rushing in.

High status isn’t an arbitrary designation that everyone can achieve. By definition, it requires some degree of exceptionalism and significant separation from the average.

If everyone could achieve a certain high status attribute, it’s no longer high status. It’s just average.

It’s easy to forget that high status is something given by others. You can’t become high status arbitrarily, you can only be high status if the average person voluntarily decides to see you as high status. Luxury good brands understand this perhaps better than anyone as their entire business revolves around making things appear artificially rare, unique, and hard to get while discreetly selling them to as many people as possible.