Material needs, probably yes. But not all needs are material needs.
> as you go to higher income brackets more and more of the possibilities fall into "luxury" and "status symbol".
Those are loaded words; one person's "luxury" is another person's preferred entertainment.
> It's absolutely bizarre that in an era of low fiction information, tuition has actually gone up. That is, until you consider the credentialing as a form of signalling for limited jobs at the high end.
That's probably a contributing factor, but it can't be the primary reason tuition has gone up so much, precisely because, as you say, there are only a limited number of jobs for which this signalling is useful.
The primary reason tuition has gone up so much is the fact that student loans and grants are so widely available. Colleges have simply raised their prices in order to consume all that extra money. Most of those loans and grants don't go to people who view a degree as a status symbol or a signalling device; they go to people who, rightly or wrongly, sincerely believe that a degree will give them a chance at a better life, and the wide availability of financial aid means that more people are likely to come to that conclusion. (IMO, we've pushed that lever too far; many of the people now using loans and grants to get degrees will not get enough of a better life to make it worth it to them. But that's a whole other discussion.)
There have been a few waves such as the Beatniks where people say eff status I want to relax. Electronics pushed that off for a while, but that treadmill seems to have slowed down. So, I expect the next wave of young people to accept they can live well on a 2 day a week job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatnik
Such is fine for 20-30 year olds without health issues or kids, but does not keep widget factories staffed or pay for pension checks.