How about the writers stop borrowing the words of a Harvard law professor and borrow the words of a university of [nowhere you’ve heard of] professor instead?
In any case it’s not about selectivity but associating exclusivity with excellence that is the issue (viz designer labels). In many other areas that exclusivity is created by financial means. People may be jealous but they don’t generally view that as unfair. They may be more upset if the exclusivity is reserved for a particular group (e.g. when politicians are treated better than their constituents).
In the case of universities the exclusivity could be created purely on intellectual grounds (viz Oxbridge) and I doubt there would be as much perception of unfairness in that case (though there are certainly some complaints in the UK). Even if it was created on financial grounds I suspect there wouldn’t be as many complaints (say they auctioned off the places at Harvard to qualified candidates). The problem in the US is that the exclusivity is created by a more opaque process and as a result there is plenty of opportunity (whether justified or not) to claim unfairness.