"Status limbo" is an imaginary affliction affecting those who derive their self-worth primarily from external validation. This is a precarious disposition in general, since their self-worth is determined by the whims of external factors like employment, social media, and other information bubbles. Often it's not even external factors so much as the afflicted's perception of those external factors, which is even more precarious.

Notably, the author of this article never reflects on their definition of "status," and instead simply assumes that it's a self-evident marker that's categorizable as in "limbo" or (apparently) some stable equilibrium. If the author were to reorient their definition of "status" to a more inwardly determined metric, perhaps they would realize it could rarely ever be in "limbo" in the first place.