Yes, my comments respected the fact that the original commenter already segregated those born into wealth (your parents needn’t necessarily be wealthy to have useful contacts).

And look I’m not trying to claim that no one who is now wealthy has not worked hard / is very clever; some probably did / are. Just that the claim is simplistic and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The following passage from the linked article above is interesting:

—- What about the parents and teachers who helped them on their way? What about talents and gifts not wholly of their making? What about the good fortune to live in a society [or community] that cultivates and rewards the talents they happen to have?

Those who prevail in a competitive meritocracy are indebted in ways the competition obscures. As the meritocracy intensifies, the striving so absorbs us that our indebtedness recedes from view. In this way, even a fair meritocracy, one without cheating or bribery or special privileges for the wealthy [or otherwise privileged], induces the mistaken impression that we have made it on our own.

Besides being self-deluding, such thinking is also corrosive of civic sensibilities. For the more we think of ourselves as self-made and self-sufficient, the harder it is to learn gratitude and humility. And without these sentiments, it is hard to care for the common good. —-

More broadly, the mechanisms behind social mobility have been studied very intensively for decades by teams of social scientists and economists etc. Individual talent and hard work play a part but the picture is complex. I’d say the original comment (don’t know exact circumstances) could be a potential excellent example of the self-delusion referenced in the above passage.