You are right that it largely breaks down across class lines.

Those who have nothing but grinding poverty to pass on beget children with no advantage in the parental yoke. But for any who did, the process was a gradual "coming into ones own" that only culminated once the younger adult was established and in good standing.

Going to strange places with no resources or references to eke out a living on the margins was an option for those who either had nothing better, or for those whose parents were tyrants much worse than those merely expecting to choose spouses and careers for their adult children.

Arranged marriage has been the rule throughout most of human history. And elopement is always a drastic cutting off of family and resources. But it is a "safety valve" for those with nothing to lose and only the possibility of gain.

When I said "virtually unthinkable" I did not expect you to read it literally. Simply to understand this was not a world with multiple "options" which could be seen as leading to successful outcomes. There was THE path, and the gamble of the desperate.

Dante