It's not the opinions of any one person that matter, it's the expressed opinion of society as a whole, which is made up of the expressed opinions of every individual. It has to start with someone, but I don't think anyone here is under the illusion that one person speaking out is sufficient to alter the culture.

There is no "opinion of society as a whole". There are myriad different cultures within the society, each with their own opinion.

Fair, that was an oversimplification. I don't believe that that substantially alters my point, though: no one is saying that if only wealthy person X would speak up everything would be better. People are arguing that we need a surge of people speaking up in defense of the choices they made that contributed to their success.

I think the article significantly overplays the extent to which that doesn't happen. I don't actually think there is any shortage of affluent / professional class / cosmopolitan people who are outspokenly proud of their stable families. But I don't think they have any influence whatsoever over the working class culture exhibiting the problems highlighted. They're two different cultures without much overlap or influence over one another.