I keep thinking about this and honestly can't land on a clean answer, because on paper it makes sense, risky and illiquid investments should probably be limited to people who can afford to lose money, but in practice it feels off.
The rule is basically 200k income or 1M net worth, and that's supposed to be the filter, but having money doesn't mean you actually understand what you're investing in, I've seen people with high incomes jump into bad deals with zero diligence, while people making way less have spent years learning this stuff and still can't access anything.
The thresholds are also outdated, so more people qualify now anyway, which kind of weakens the whole argument that this is some strict protection layer.
I've been looking at some real estate platforms and groups like Primior, and some of it actually looks solid, but access is still locked behind the same rules, so a lot of people just never even get the chance to participate.
At the same time, you can go trade options or mess around with crypto and lose money just as fast, if not faster, and there's basically no barrier there, which makes the whole thing feel inconsistent.
I get that scams exist and not everyone should be in private deals, but this doesn't really filter for knowledge or discipline, it just filters for wealth, and it feels like there should be a better way to handle it, maybe something tied to experience or actual understanding instead of just income.