Are stories about dragons just allegories about the uber-wealthy and the dangers of hoarding wealth?

Precisely. If I remember correctly, it is speculated that since story tellers couldn't write anything to criticise the monarchy, they used allegories, like dragons.

Look up the story of Fafnir and Andvari's ring. Its one of the first dragon stories which we have in full. It's part of Volsungasaga. The dwarf literally turns into a dragon because of his greed. Andvaranaut is the inspiration behind Tolkien's "One Ring", as well.

Heartily agree about the origin, altho modern 'dragons' additionally want to use their hoard to warp reality around them to conform to their vision & tastes.

Meanwhile, their wealth tends to provide huge insulating effects from reality, meaning it's super easy for them to go off track in to batshit-crazy territory. Or at least territory that's essentially toxic for most other life around them.

I'm pretty sure in some dragon stories, the presence of the dragon warps and ruins the surrounding countryside. So dragon as metaphor for greedy rich person still works.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, many people today are cheering for the dragons.

What are dragons going to buy anyway? They don’t even wear clothes.

Sure, like the Desolation of Smaug. But that's a situation in which there's a buffer area and danger zone, and everyone but the dwarves know to stay the eff away.

A modern dragon would be more like a virus or cancer that infects everything around them, making it almost impossible to get away at times (or most of the time). Like an invasive weed network with its root system undermining everything below ground, while things seem 'normal' up above.

So, frankly, the dragon analogy kind of breaks down at some point.

Donkeys

Much of alchemy is supposed to be crypto-self development that would have fallen afoul of the church.

No, because dragons are cool

This is the lore of the Shadowrun games. The dragons even do the billionaire thing where they create cultural narratives surrounding themselves that they are a necessary evil to stave off even worse evils from beyond.

yes. Maybe not some of the stories from antiquity, I think there's some interpretations of like St George and the Dragon where the dragon is meant to represent sin, but in the modern era they are near exclusively an allegory for greed.

Well... A bit like pirates, the styling and fantasy is cool but when you think through the realities of it there's nothing romantic about them at all