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Notes -
A slight disagreement on your phrasing. I don't agree with Freddie but it does seem like you might be begging the question in this paragraph. If you exclude the premise that virtuous but untalented people being able to live a life that is not "barren of wealth, stability, and success" is also a desirable social outcome, one that may be more important than those you justify meritocracy on, then you've won the argument before it even started.
Freddie is (intentionally or not) inviting you to get bogged down in arguments about what social outcomes are desirable instead of the economic points you bring up, the normal way around this is to say that even granting his premise the least talented have a hell of a lot more wealth, stability and success than any other system that has been tried.
It is a desirable social outcome but it's not the only desirable social outcome. Every policy has tradeoffs and my main point is that we should recognize that meritocratic policies have (massive) benefits that don't fit into the framework of "someone is better off because they got a high-paying job through their hard work and abilities." I agree that I could have phrased this better.
I tried to gesture at something like this later on in my post. However, I don't think I quite agree with your phrasing here. Freddie seems to either think or at least think that proponents of "equality of opportunity" think that policies should be judged on how "just" they are in some personal-morality sense (e.g. he says "Core to that whole conception of justice is the notion that talent and hard work are something inherent to the individual or under the control of the individual"). That is a premise of his that I do reject.
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