Unless you work in a factory where labor is considered a commodity, income equality is a denial of a meritocracy to spur the renewal responsible for the prolonging of human sustainability.
So, indeed, inequality is crucial to human evolution, for the value of our minute but paramount differences are much, much more important than the stifling regurgitation of our commonalities. And for human excellence to improve we best appraise our differentiated qualities in accordance with their evolutionary merit.
Mind you: growth is not an evolutionary imperative, the strength of renewal is.