Do the “insiders” get anything from the church? Why are there so much?

I’ll explain. So you often look see pastors who form themselves as cult leaders, and usually they have a set “in-crowd”, whether it’s their family, their cult following friends or whatever. But I can’t help but notice that every year or every other year, atleast at my church, there’s always a new member that gets sucked in and they too become dick suckers of the church and the people in it. And If you’re lucky, you can come in as a newcomer and become part of the “insiders”, a group of people get so entangled into the church space, they start to treat the “outsiders” like genuine trash to keep their status. From the outside, you see these “insiders” who’s always smiling and with a clique but the “outsiders” look miserable all the time and they sometimes just vanish, allowing the insiders to comment they were never close to God to begin with even(???)

I’ve always chalked it up to them being ignorant but there’s a certain point where you just really start to ask: Are they getting handouts?

Are they getting paid or are they just THAT lost?

Are they the manipulated or the manipulators?