No, you're missing two big points:

1. Not all status are tied to buying more. For example, you can get Hilton Gold status with fewer one-night stays than nights on multi-nights stays, and it doesn't matter whether it's at a cheap hotel or an expensive hotel, and you can also get it by having the right credit card (yes, with an annual fee, but a set price for that annual fee, starting at $75 a year). In fact, most hotel programs award status for the number of nights and/or number of stays, with no consideration to rate paid. Some hotel programs have another option of status gained by base points, which is more likely to be proportional to paid rates, but that's not that common.

And lifetime status at airlines is still based on paid miles flown, regardless of whether you pay high or low fares.

And at many airlines, even annual status is still based largely (sometimes even solely) on miles flown, regardless of whether you pay high or low fares, even if redeemable miles are tied to purchase cost. Minimum purchase requirements for status is not the same thing at all as status being proportional to price paid.

2. Get more is also not very accurate IMHO. It's often more like "have a chance at getting more". Access to preferred seating is no good if the preferred seats are all taken by the time you buy your expensive last-minute flight. Upgrades to the front cabin are no good if the front cabin is sold out with paying customers, and/or if you weren't "first enough" in line to get the few remaining upgrades. System wide upgrades are no good if they're capacity controlled and time-limited, and in the time allotted none of the flights you take have upgrade availability. And so on.

And so since what you get for status is extermely variable and impossible to quantify, how is it like a bulk discount? And since status is not generally related to price paid, how is it like a bulk discount?