Regardless of how true your point is, millions of 20-something year old men exist in the market that haven't yet, or never will, reach your state of capitalism nirvana.

So your assumption justifies judging Tesla owners? Doesn't seem very enlightened of you either

Did you mean to reply to me? I didn't claim it was or wasn't okay, or that I was enlightened. I am merely pointing out that one person's journey to separating themselves from being concerned with vanity and status of their vehicle doesn't remove the large population of people predisposed to behave otherwise.

Personally, I stopped fighting this particular battle. I've come to the realization that intangibles matter - some of those might be incidental, some pure personal preferences, some result of me being manipulated by marketing.

But separating which is which is not always easy, and I'd rather spend my time on other things. As a result I take "intangibles" as a rational factor in buying decisions even if the intangibles themselves might not necessarily be rational.