I think this is a major part of it.

Which is why high levels of wealth and power actually lead to bad mental health of the rich and powerful.

They get detached from normal life and start looking for thrills in the wrong places. It's kind of a similar effect as what middle class people know as lifestyle adaptation or the hedonic treadmill.

Once the normal things that provide pleasure are easy to obtain, people start looking for pleasure in places that still provide mystery, adventure and a challenge.

These people desperately need therapy to learn how to be content with normal things, but instead they follow their flawed monkey brains into a trap.

True, but these are some mental characteristics that are more prevalent in rich people that might skew that a bit, by enriching the set with personalities that might be more prone to act on their perversions.

It's not just that their wealth gives them the opportunity to wield and enjoy power over others, but also that those who are thrilled by power over others seek wealth and enjoy the ruthless things they have to do to get it. So these characteristics will be overrepresented among the rich.

Yeah but the people getting rich normally do it by taking advantage of other people, so it's just in their DNA

Power is the major reason.

I also would not be surprised if powerful people have to do something sinister as an initiation rite that could be held against them in the future.

Like a dangling sword, should they feel just TOO powerful to toe the line.

I don't think they're twiddling their thumbs while doing these deeds, it's just so normalized in their ecosystem they don't even rationalize how bad it actually is. Like they probably don't think it's "that bad" for reasons like conditions, or maybe it's just the kids are happy to get paid a lot so they don't see it as irrational.

Not justification, not condoning, still disgusting and immoral