"AA membership was 74 members from 1935 through 1938 as the original manuscript went to press, 41 known to have achieved permanent sobriety, so is there a slight exaggeration ?"
You are correct. Just a slight exaggeration. One of the character defects that Bill Wilson clung to was embellishing the truth. I don't hold that against him too much. If it were not for him being an ego-driven promoter, we probably wouldn't be here to talk about it.
As for separating certain AA's from others, let me just say I only know two kinds of AA's-ones that are recovered and ones that are not. The only time I hang with the unrecovered ones is when I'm taking them through the steps or working with them at the jitter joint. If certain AA's choose to stay sick, that's fine, I just don't hang with them. I've been called an elitist, and at times that has been more than likely true, but the truth of the matter is that I don't care how spiritually fit a person is, hanging out with people that exude sick, toxic energy will eventually drag a person down.
You can stay sick in AA and have plenty of company or you can get well in AA and not have as much company but it'll be better company.
Jim