Oddly, I tend to feel like having high status among nerdy types is the only time it actually "counts."

Well, why would I care what status people who don't regularly non-trivially interact with me assign to me?

say, people calling me "sir" or otherwise treating me as higher-status at work makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Same here, but I think the main reason for that is that it makes me feel ‘old’. (Teenagers and people in the early twenties aren't usually treated that way (no matter how cool they are in the eyes in their peers), and I don't exactly revel in being reminded that I'm no longer one.) ETA: I do like the fact that I'm now economically independent, though.

(Edited to add scare quotes around “old”, lest thirtysomethings resent me, as they usually do when I say I feel old.)