I agree - it's not a gauge of anything & those that do go through this likely do so for a myriad of personal reasons.
In my observation, when RAH had this opinion/mindset it was during the time he was still looking for ways to qualify himself as terminally unique & was staying sober but not working on recovering. His intolerance & judgment for others was a type of projection related to how he felt about himself. (Or maybe how he was trying to NOT feel about himself is more accurate?) It was really just a degree of difference from the height of his drinking when he surrounded himself with people that he considered "bigger drunks" or "worse" than him in some way.
I didn't really think much of it only because he was FULL of shifting moods & opinions & almost as unpredictable in early recovery as he had been when he drank heavily, honestly. And I had a LOT going on with my own side of things - more than enough.
After he committed to recovery, this was another one of the areas where I saw a change in attitude from him- more tolerance & way, way less judgment toward this & many other things.