The main issue is spiritual emptiness.
I respectfully disagree.
The people that I know that have real money (9 figures +) do not and have no need to “flaunt” it.
It is the people who do not have money who worship/obsess over it (at least from what I have seen, from the kollel guys who hock about it to the people who borrow to dress their children matching or to make a wedding “just like the Cohens'”).
Then if they get it (in whatever fashion), some people feel the need to say “I’ve made it” to their peer group. Ga’aiva, perhaps.
The only reason to have money is as a tool for Avodas Hashem. Pay bills on time, pay tuition, give tzedaka (All Mitzvos D’Orayssa), as well as other good causes.
Now, being that I am not in Ramat Eshkol (to the OP), I can’t speak for other areas.
There is also peer pressure involved in those areas (possibly), which may “force” people to dress showy. Ramat Eshkol is the American neighborhood in Yerushalyim, correct? It may just be importing those attitudes (maybe, I don’t really know).
Wolf: Good for you, that is the right thing. I still don’t have a megillah (after all these years), I just don’t see it as required over other expenses.