[Elrond]

I also think the Wealth rule doesn't feel quite right.

First the "Face-man" thing. Of course a charismatic person with good social and commercial skills will get a better price when selling loot or buying supplies. But those skills will be less effective when he walks into the shop accompanied by four stinking beggar-types with odious personal habits. The rule encourages min-maxing: make one character with the shopping traits and make the rest anti-social bums for free points. That's exactly what people do routinely in computer games: only the leader needs charisma, for the rest it doesn't matter at all.

I would take an average of the social bonuses for the entire group, in which the "spokesman" counts equal to the rest combined. That way having a social expert makes sense, but it also discourages making all others totally anti-social for free points.

Second, I think Wealth is too static in the rules. Wealth is the entire point of dungeon delving: the characters go into dangerous dungeons to get rich and famous. So the entire point is wealth and social status. In that sense, it is a social climbing game. Delvers can make fortunes by carrying loot out of dungeons and lose them by consuming healing potions and expensive special chi rations and paying for resurrection. It should be a dynamic thing.

So I would split Wealth into Wealth and Connections.
Wealth would be really more about lifestyle than about net worth, but of course these things are connected. A miserly millionaire who lives like a poor man, will have Wealth (Poor). Someone who lives beyond his means, will run out of money eventually and lose Wealth levels. So my take would be: if a character's net worth reaches a certain threshold, he can buy up Wealth. This will increase cost of living: you have to live the part. Besides, living like a bum will not be possible anymore: respectable people don't beg and don't use Urban Survival. The good thing is, it gives social status. Nobles will talk to you and hire you for quests if your Wealth is high enough. If Wealth gets even higher, they will stop ridiculing you behind your back, finance expeditions and give the really profitable quests. Of course, the chain is as strong as the weakest link, same as with hiking.

Connections is about having the right connections to get good prices in commercial traffic. It is related to Wealth, but not the same. Gullible rich people will still get bad prices. You could set certain Wealth levels as prerequisite for Connections levels: eg you can only get Connections (Bourgeois) if Wealth is Average or higher. It could als be related with occupations: the highest levels might be reserved for bards, scouts can't go beyond Bourgois etc. But that might be a bit on the overcomplicated side.

That is how I would do it.