Oh yeah, there's a strong element of unpleasantness to it. Not only that, but it's deeply connected to how Roman society itself was structured - around client/patron relationships. Sycophancy opened many doors. It was not exactly a great system.

I mean, our system isn't great either. But I would hazard that it is less sycophantic and less oriented towards client/patron relationships, which is, at least, better than the reverse.

The part the “bring this back” people miss is that in order to benefit from this arrangement, you need to be known and liked by rich people, which typically requires that you are already rich.

This is a bit of an interesting point - before the Industrial Revolution, the rich often had many contacts amongst the poor, in part because it was impossible to avoid them. Such 'parasites' in the Roman era would have overwhelmingly been poor/working class, or artisans/middle class at best.

After advanced forms of transport were developed, the rich began creating more distance - physical, social, and metaphorical - between themselves and The Poors(tm).