Interesting way of framing inequality. Obviously different levels of inequality may have different effects, but even in some place as relatively affluent and equal as the UK, "...inequality pulls production away from value creation to protecting and securing the wealthy's assets: one in five of the British workforce, for example, works as 'guard labour' -- in security, policing, law, surveillance and forms of IT that control and monitor. The higher inequality, the greater the proportion of a workforce deployed as guard workers, who generate little value and lower overall productivity."
*Some* variance in economic outcomes is useful. Maximizing social and economic outcomes, together, is tricky, but we should focus on doing *both*.