One of those successful cases of bitcoin hodling was a friend of a friend. They (a couple) took an important risk by investing 60k of a dismissal compensation into bitcoin and making a x100 on it before selling half. I do not know what they did with the rest. Now, these people were not rich, they took an enormous risk compared to their total wealth. They had to really believe on the project and pass though some of bitcoins usual "tests of faith".
For someone with let´s say, a net worth of 1M USD or more plus house, hodling 60k until they became 6M would have been not that much of an stress. Do you think it was easier to benefit economically from bitcoin if you were already a bit up in the ladder?
No I do not think that at all.
I know it is easier which is always true when you are far enough ahead in any game.
I think rich people have the advantage when it comes to hodling their coins. They don't easily feel stress and be disappointed whenever the price started to decline because they are already financially stable. Unlike those who needed money badly most of the time, they will always want to make more profits even if the market is not yet stable. So they become panic when the price tends to move in opposite ways. This is the reason why most of them resort into panic selling because they have fears that they will lose even more if they still hodl when they see the prices keeps on deteriorating.