That people prefer to be rich does not make it better.
It's enough for a strong presumption of it being better, pending evidence to the contrary.
Taboo "better": there are preferences as belief, and preferences as revealed in actions. Actions are clearly in favour of being rich.
On the side of beliefs, there are certainly religions and ethical theories that say being poor is better. Personally, I strongly disagree with both this and many other beliefs of all such theories that I know about, not to mention religions.
There are of course ethical systems that say that while being rich may be good, giving away your wealth to charity is better still. Even plain self-interested consequentialism may tell you that you should give your money, perhaps to fight existential risk or to help develop FAI. I certainly agree that there is a tradeoff to be made; I'm only pointing out that in itself, rich is better than poor.
As for the Stoics, I too am not deeply familiar with their philosophy. But it seems to me that any concrete problems generated by wealth, can be rather easily solved in practice by using some of that wealth.
It's enough for a strong presumption of it being better, pending evidence to the contrary.
There is plenty of evidence that behaviour is not always rational which in my mind shifts the burden of proof.
Another month has passed and here is a new rationality quotes thread. The usual rules are: