[averagewall]

Have there been any societies that use something else for status where life wasn't horrible? I can think of schools and prisons where status comes from made-up reasons that exist only as a way to provide status and have net negative value to the society. I hope there's something besides jobs that can give people purpose while also not being harmful, otherwise we'll create our own harmful status games.

[marcosdumay]

Any society that tries using something not based on utility provided for status fails for obvious reasons. (What may change with robots, by the way.)

But I don't see how your argument has any relation to the GP.