Do we actually know that? Everything on here is either speculation, or "the concierge told me so". And if, as we assume, the computer runs the upgrade process, I'm not convinced the concierges would know what the priority is.

For all we know, connections could trump status.

I seem to recall a story on here where a concierge noticed an SE was low down on the upgrade list, so "forced" the upgrade, preventing someone else with lower status, but higher on the list, from getting an upgrade.

My theory is that as soon as someone starts making adjustments to the list (which, from my experience, seems to happen more often than I'd like), all bets are off.