Every such "club" inevitably attracts a specific sort that badly want to join just for the sense of exclusivity and a chance to virtue-signal their member status. It's same thing with some hard-to-get-into torrent trackers — once in, people become poster-children for Stockholm syndrome and the mods really get off on their perceived power. It's also the same with expensive new sport car models that manufacturers sell to collectors.

My intuition says it's to do with Status Signaling theory .