Most of the examples if I recall where of specific things, like the early ninja class in Naruto. Only a few of actuarial main characters. Except for the odd one like Magneto or Saito Hajime. Of course for the latter one which Saito Hajime are they talking about? There is almost three of them in anime alone. Then a real world one (we can assume that's not the one refereed to). 

Ya, the whole tier system was flawed from the start.