Our friend Nigel may or may not play status games of his own, but my issue was with you saying

A person coming from "social culture" to "nerd culture" may interpret everything as a part of some devious status game.

The social person is right here.

And, nope, the social person is not.

Of course, it all depends on the situation and she may be right, but, generally speaking, feeling like an outsider does NOT mean that everyone is playing devious status games against you.