I guess maybe I don't actually hang out that much with other triathletes or at least the ones I've met haven't been snobs. Or maybe I'm not paying enough attention to what they're doing on social media.

A better question would be are there any better species in the triathlon ecosystem than the profamateur.
One of the biggest critique I see of pros on sites like slowtwitch is that they need to improve at marketing themselves. Half of your post is spent complaining about how profamateurs use social media. Showing off their one or two minor sponsors, posting glamorous training selfies, etc. - that's marketing. If they have followers, they must be inspiring to someone and are giving triathlon more exposure. This is good for the sport. Sure they don't have any real sponsors yet, but why would you sponsor someone without a strong social media presence?

Compared to a BOP or MOP age grouper, profamateurs are FAST. A BOP or MOP age grouper might never interact with top tier pros, but that one profamateur who they've actually met or gone on a group ride with before can be a real inspiration in part because the 'pro' title sounds so cool.

As for racing, I see the complaint all the time about pros getting beat by amateurs, but this is absolutely ridiculous. No matter where the cutoff is for a pro card, there will always be amateurs who beat pros. Someone has to be last in a pro race, and whoever that person is, they are probably having a bad day. Someone has to be first in an amateur race, and whoever that person is, they are probably having a good day. No matter where you draw the line for a pro card, these two will always overlap.

The point of racing is to see where you stack up against other athletes. You get beat by someone, and so you have a reason to train harder and improve. If you win or podium an amateur race, there isn't that same motivator. I would much rather finish bottom third of a field than to win by 5 minutes. If you can take your pro card, you should take it, assuming you want to improve. Getting smashed by the pros will be way better for your development than cruising to another amateur podium. (Ideally triathlon would have categories like cycling but that's another post...)

But the decision to turn pro because you earned it is not that simple. Take a random sample of the very top amateurs in the country who qualified for their pro cards last year. You'll have some young guys in their early 20's all the way through to some absolute hammers in their 40's, maybe even 50's (I'm thinking of a dude in Oceanside last year that absolutely killed it). The pull of racing pro is going to be very different for every single one of those guys, even regardless of their age, jobs, family situation, kids, time to train, other hobbies, etc. And I can promise you it's not because all of those guys want to sandbag some AG races; most of them have a whole lot of things going on in life and still treat triathlon as a hobby. They just happen to be fast.

And as far as saying you won't have any motivation to improve if you win an AG race, I would say you should make sure you are doing the top races. Obvious example - a lot of people's egos get knocked down pretty damn quickly at a race like Kona.