It doesn’t need to just be people who are severely disabled.
If you have a naturally lower intelligence level, even if not drastically lower, you will have more trouble having a happy life in a purely meritocratic system.
Without a equalizing factor, it could actually be worse than in a nepotistic system where your innate drawbacks would be overlooked due to being family.
This starts to matter more when we develop more and more ability to improve ourselves. The inherently intelligent will accumulate more wealth. This wealth will allow them to invest in themselves and improve their intelligence. This will lead to even more wealth. The people with less natural ability will be left behind.
This may not matter much when the only way to improve yourself is through hard work and studying. It will matter enormously when you can purchase add ons to your brain.
^Day 204/90 160 words