You are correct money has a lot to do with it if you can't afford to play in the big tournaments that offer norms you may be as strong as an IM or GM but it will be very hard for you to get the title

I dont know, I was just guessing the rating range, but once u get a title you can NEVER LOSE IT! only get a better on... so a GM is always a GM!

Plus you have a lot of "has been" GMs like Bisguire, Benko and Denker who were long past their peaks and struggled to even beat real IMs.  There has been huge inflation in the number of GMs.  There is the super GM category where you have people who have attained true mastery of the game and routinely play high end chess with minimal errors.  I would also think the amount of brain-numbing work necessary to be a GM, large parts of human potential in other areas are lost or compromised, people ask, "...do you really want to be a quantum nerd like that since the pay is pretty paltry in most cases?"