Walter:

I think, to stay sane, any writer who is not an "elite" should not have the goal of becoming one in any way shape or form.

The "elite" writer subset you describe here are not writers in the usual sense. They are a sort of thinly disguised imposter within the overall group we describe as "writers."

That is, they are not doing it for the joy of creation, they are doing it for the accolades, the fame, the easy fortune. And that's not writing. That's no different from being a celebrity actor or sports star, except actors and sports stars actually have to continue to produce good "work" in their field to maintain their celebrity status.

Working class writers can be rich. But they get there and stay there by producing quality work that they send out into the world. They do it as a career, not as a shot in the dark at winning some kind of literary "respectability" contest.

Kevin J. Anderson is a bit of an example here. He started off publishing science fiction in the traditional publishing industry, and now he has his own publishing company and is at least partially in the "indie" field due to changes in how writing income comes in these days.