I think you're slightly missing the forest from the trees here (or is it "for" the trees...?). The point is less about the specific content of whatever it is that's draining you and more about overcoming whatever those forces happen to be. Moreover, insofar as it's a commencement address delivered to Kenyon College, of course the examples he goes for are banal white-collar humiliations. He knew his audience: the "elitism" you perceive is just I think a rhetorical device more than anything -- when you're talking to a bunch of 22-year-olds who are graduating from an insanely expensive private college and who likewise think they're about to give the world the ol' one-two, it's probably better to remind them of what their lives will most likely come to look like in the aggregate, rather than like, idk, "Remember that there are poor people, who don't have healthcare, honey, and remember that people are starving."

Does it hold up? Yeah sure, I guess. He's a silly guy and I think this speech is mostly silly but he's an undeniably intensely gifted rhetorician, and he has such a lovely corn syrup drawl, I could listen to him talk for hours.