I accept the possibility that this is because I expressed my ideas in a confusing and poorly worded manner

Well: long-winded, maybe. Fine otherwise; I'd mention it less.

You wrote that beyond life or death "status is the primary preoccupation of humans", I disagreed and in particular with "THE primary preoccupation". You seem to now have appropriately qualified that initial statement; I'll certainly agree, for my part, that some people sometimes read books for bragging rights.

I definitely agree that various forms of "status" play significant roles in human motivation. Given that all of our behaviour rests in one way or another in executing biological adaptations I have no contention with your thesis. I strongly suspect that what we call "status" is not one mechanism but several, so that in each case it pays to hug the query.