Of course, completely forsaking status would mean all sorts of unpleasantness for a typical person, but this is only because we hate to admit how much of our lives revolves around zero-sum status competitions after all.

I agree that we hate to admit how much of our lives revolves around zero-sum status competitions. Here human modification via genetic engineering, supplements, & advanced technologies provides a potential way out, right? That we don't like the fact that our lives revolve around zero-sum status competitions implies that there's motivation to self-modify in the direction of deriving fulfillment from other things.

Of course there's little historical precedent for technological self-modification and so such hypotheticals involve a necessary element of speculation, but it's not necessarily the case that things will remain as they always have been.

Also, there would always be losers in these post-work status games who could improve their status by engaging in some sort of paid work and saving up to trade for the coveted status markers.

This is a very good point and one which I was thinking of bringing up in response to Yvain's comment but had difficulty articulating; thanks.