I think we should stop at, "There certainly are good self-published books out there." The "crap" followup is hardly relevant. Especially since I would quantify the vast majority of ALL books (regardless of how they were published) as being crap. Crap; meaning books I'd choose to have tender pieces of my anatomy removed rather than have to read them.
As I've mentioned before: in my eyes, being competently proofed, edited, and lovingly vetted does not automatically move a book off of the crap pile (I'm looking at you, Snookie). The volume of crap is only relevant if one is in the habit of choosing books _entirely_ at random (or sees validity in comparing "worsts").
As to status imbued: well that's just centuries old dogma that's slow to change. I doubt highly that the successful independent authors of today who've chosen to sign contracts with traditional publishers have done so to gain "status." They've already earned that, or traditional publishers wouldn't be flirting with them in the first place. Most of them eventually sign with traditional publishers because it eases their workload (and their initial solo success means they gain access to publisher resources without giving up
all of their autonomy or all rights to their own work for life).