> It's not that the smooth path you can get via nepotism is the base way things work

Well, obviously it isn't if you're not in the 1%. If you're in the 1% then that's the way the world has always worked and you don't know anything differently.

Meritocracy is great and all, but there's a gap between having merit and others seeing the merit.

I don't believe that human society can, practically, get particularly close to the ideal. I question the choice of fatty meat as a substrate for minds.

For my money, I'd suggest that merit will get you further today than in the days of letters of recommendation, but that failures of meritocracy are more visible.