Option 1: undeserved admiration. Everyone praises you and names their kids after you, but it's all fake. You didn't do anything, and indeed can't do anything. Your whole day is fully scheduled by someone else up to and including bathroom breaks.
Option 2: you can do basically whatever you want, but are universally reviled. You get open spontaneous Emmanuel Goldstein hate on the street, but they can't do anything to you; they can't stop you from so much as littering.
If those were your only two options, which would you pick?
For moderns, it's pure-red option 1. Simulacrum over substance every time.
If status is a means, option 2 is the only way to get it. Option 1 is only attractive if the ritual of admiration (not actual admiration) is the point.
Consider option 3: you are admired by everyone, but nobody tells you about it. Moderns would still choose option 1. It's the profession of admiration they want, not admiration itself.
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