Elitist when looked at from the position of a baseball player from a family who can provide some support. Between college and law school my daughter worked as an unpaid intern for our local Congressman for no pay because we could afford a few months of it. She could have parlayed that onto a job on a Democratic Congressperson's staff if she chose. The Congressman would have found her a spot somewhere. However, really difficult to do without a family to pick up rent and food (no matter how cheap). She then worked as an unpaid intern for Obama in 2008 for six months and then became a stipend intern after a month. This could have turned into a job as well. But she wanted to be a lawyer and went to law school after the primaries.
That cost her over a hundred thousand in law school loans. The jobs from the unpaid internships would ultimately have been more lucrative, and why so many people are willing to get their foot in the door. I did the same thing out of graduate school by taking a paid internship in the Governor's Office of Planning and Research.
It's also elitist for the opposite spectrum, kids from the islands, don't stick up their noses at the benefits from the academies, which among other things provide basic sustenance and health care. Those lower minor league salaries are paths on the way to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This may be true for inner city kids as well.
I believe all non-volunteer workers should get minimum wage. I also have no problems placing dollar values on housing, food, free medical care, instruction, etc. to equal that wage (This is different from tips to waitstaff as customers, note employers pay them).
As a political commentary, internships are really bad from a sexual exploitation viewpoint, because of the disparate power statuses.