Agreed, and I think this is reasonable. There are a great many examples of people who amassed wealth in unsavory or illegal ways. And my sense is that almost nobody defends all forms of wealth acquisition as moral and good.

That said, I think there are a great many people who believe that all forms of wealth acquisition (above a certain scale) are fundamentally immoral. And that belief is held because they believe, "The only way you get a billion dollars is taking advantage of working people, not earning it."

So, my read is that PG's point is not to defend all billionaires. But instead, to debunk the incorrect folk-belief that all billionaires necessarily are exploitative.