There are countless other incentives as tangible as money including meaning, status, security, fame, etc.
If you spend time around people with money you will find they will happily trade it to achieve these.
What this belief signals most strongly to me is your class.
What this "classism" mentality signals is your sense of superiority due to the amount of $ you have in a bank.
You literally said "What this belief signals most strongly to me is your class.". So that wasn't personal?
In the us of a, money is the ultimate status and often used as the measuring stick to the value of ones ideas, personhood, and everything in between.
I cannot stand it but it is what it is.
Do you remember the TV show duck dynasty where a rural family form the south became millionaries selling sporting goods?
How would you compare their socials status to a Berkeley undergrad with parents who work in the bay?