I think it's a question of balance, at the other end of the spectrum you can get growing startups where the initial "everyone's on a level and talks about everything" approach no longer works and has given way to a combination of multiple people competing over the same territory and the old guard finding ways to remind the noobs what the pecking order is. In that kind of situation, a little hierarchy and a few harmless ways of recognising past achievement/tenure would make for a much more harmonious work place.