By "aristocratic", I meant insular of a privileged class, which is what I took the editorial to be asserting.

Since we're quoting the L.A Times, it goes on to say:

But AP students who take the courses but don't take the exams, or score poorly, fare no better in college than non-AP students. Yet UC continues to give them the grade boost.

What they don't say is that such students are granted admission in preference to students which score high on the exam.