The upside of all this: given time we can all afford the black card

exactly
Depends on whether or not they'll keep black cards at 50,000 MCO or make them dynamic. If I recall correctly they were going to keep the black card fixed, which actually makes sense given the limited number of cards. If MCO became the #1 crypto card I could see people locking up a couple dozen millions for a black card in the (very) long run, be it for perks or prestige.