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A good example of a fringe/extreme idea that is high rung is interracial marriage. As Tim noted, support for interracial marriage in the 1960s was pretty extreme. As time went on it became more mainstream and it used high rung tactics and thinking to achieve that.
So that's a good example of high rung "extremism". Ideas which are right in the future are probably extreme today, and they'll have convinced society through high rungness.
I guess Tim says that the high rung immune system didn't kick in because the institutions did not not bow to public pressure. In the face of SJF pressure, the institutions gave in and did the SJF thing. High rungness would be to not bow like Tim noted with Shopify.
My interpretation is that Tim believes we're all capable of higher rung thinking given the chance. Interestingly there are many similarities between his current system and the animal-human dichotomy in his older post "Religion for the Nonreligous". In it, Tim explains how within our step on the evolutionary intelligence/consciousness staircase there are several subfloors, 1 being default, stupid awareness and 3 or 4 being monk level awareness. In this system step 1 seems to mean "Primmitive Mind in control" and 2 seems to mean "Higher Mind in control" (3 and 4 moments are so rare they're above the highest rungs). In it Tim explains that the longer you are on 1 the harder it is to get higher.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the longer your Primitive Mind has been controlling you, the harder it is to climb. But it is always possible to climb.
I hope I answer some of your questions although this is just my interpretation. While Tim outdid himself on this book, reading many negative reviews Tim didn't include many things that could easily have answered their questions (in fact he did say things that does answer their questions and criticisms on Twitter, but it would've been better if he put it in his book).
You did an excellent analysis.