Great post @prch I really like how you post in English and Chinese. I may do the same with Arabic or other languages I'm learning. I think being obsessed with accents is temporary with many people and they lose it once realise it's meaningless compared to effective communication.
I remember buying a course about "Speak English like A Native Speaker", needless to say I haven't completed the course and I don't have a flawless accent. I'm actually happy with my current accent.
As long as you have good and clear pronunciation then nothing else really matters, unless you want to be a voice actor.
Having a posh accent is indeed superficial and institutions can capitalise on that because people are naturally attracted to superficial things.
Thank you for the great article
This is exactly what I always think!