So a quote from Josh Safran in the awful Refinery29 article someone else posted caught my eye:

"I really enjoy winking at that,” Safran says of making the 2021 version of the show’s previous stars lean into their inherit (sic) privilege.  “It was very important for us in the writer’s room to... show somehow that the Blairs and Serenas of the world — and the Pippa and Biancas  of the world — still believe that they have a ‘right’ to something that they don’t. We needed to create these characters to show that.”

Verrrry interesting. Not sure that's what ending up coming across in the episode, but that's in line with the themes of the reboot. And I agree, people like the characters in the OG often got to tell their stories simply because they were rich and mostly white, and it didn't matter if the story wasn't unique. I think culturally many of us have moved past that, and I'm glad to see Gossip Girl 2.0 reflecting that as well.