> research-only the elite

Not really. This is true only for faculty in research institutes like IHES in France, or IAS in USA.

In normal universities, both research-only faculty and teaching-only faculty are considered below the "teaching-and-research" faculty. They correspond to what in the old parlance was called "ordinary professors" in Europe. The "extraordinary professors", despite what they sound like, were considered inferior to them - extra as in outside, so more corresponding to adjunct faculty of today.