But does it mitigate bullying? Going straight to “but bullying doesn’t stop” is an unconvincingly perfectionist stance.

Not really, no. If a kid wants to bully you theyll find a reason to do so. If you've ever been a third party watching that stuff, you'll see what people are actually being bullied for doesn't really make sense. Take away the shoes and the phone and it will just be your hair or your posture. Bullying is a targeted activity

In my uniformed school, decades ago, money didn't matter as much as size. The big popular guys kept the rich guys around to buy them things.

Edit: power came from physical strenght, attractiveness and sports proficiency. Very much an ancient greek ideal, lol.

Bullying is about power. Bullying can be about money when you don't normalize the population for money. Nowadays you would need uniforms and school provided phones, I suppose. Never in America.