I don’t think those of us who oppose it are saying everyone who wants it is specificly to use it for elitism. (Though, you can put money on some posters just by how abusive they try to be while talking about it) What we are saying is that history has proven that this is what eventually happens because it caters to that elitism.
So it really comes down to which attitude dominates the community. One where elitists are restricted to their own little corners of the world, or one where everyone else is restricted to their own little corners of the world. I prefer it if elitists do their own thing without imposing on me. Since their philosophy is based on imposing where as non-elitism is not.
I think your mis-attributing the reasons for the “spread of elitism.” Elitism occurs most strongly in games like LoL, where there is an explicit set of rules and etiquette that you learn through experience. An obvious one is “don’t feed” which is really obvious to anyone except a new player, who gets upset when they get berated for feeding.
Then look at games like WoW, where classes have rigid party roles and an explicit set of rules for optimally completing the dungeon. Again, the elitism is developed through experience. Some of this experience comes in the form of optimal gearing, where /inspect would come into play. But /inspect only factors into this as a victim of elitism, not a tool of elitism itself. /Inspect is a useful tool for determining if your party is geared optimally, but not a catalyst for elitism in itself.
If you look at GW2, you already have widespread elitism. At least in my case, i have been berated in groups for making noob mistakes, even after saying it was my first time.
The more experience a community gets with dungeons, the more optimal ways to complete it become common knowledge. Lack of that knowledge leads to bad mannered reactions and what we perceive as “elitist” attitudes. This type of gameplay is even more magnified in zerker cof runs, where you are not welcomed unless you conform to the most optimal standards to complete the dungeon.
I will not argue, that if /inspect was implemented, you would no doubt get /inspected and booted from a zerker run. But that is no different to the current environment, except you have to ping your gear to be evaluated. Or they assume you have zerk gear and then berate you later for under performing.
These issues only occur when people with two different goals unknowingly intermingle. If i post for a run for all classes, chances are the people that join will be easy going, because if they were trying to run the dungeon most optimally, they would seek out a zerker group. I think /inspect would provide useful information to prevent these two types of players from unknowingly grouping, thus lessening the amount of animosity you see in the community from casuals vs elitists.