That's an interesting thing (to me). It's obvious then that elite status would be worth a lot less on some routes when it's not really elite to be one of 40 EBG on the flight.
Another thing I think about is that these 1 to 1.5 % that are EBG travel a lot more than the average leisure traveller who may travel once or twice a year. I suppose EBG and other Golds make up much more than 1.5% of the total passenger number for SAS and other carriers.