The Clan civilian castes are also closer to normal people than the pod-born Warriors. Think of them as the equivalent to your favorite people being held under the heel of an oppressive autocratic government. Only with good healthcare and decent food, and only occasionally being fried by stray pulse lasers. They still consume media, they still entertain themselves, they still have social lives. It's just their lives in general are more regimented than ours.
That depends on the Clan, too. The Crusaders were typically dicks to the non-Warriors in your standard medieval noble fashion, but the Wardens like the Bears, Wolves, and Horses treated them pretty well and let them have a free hand in affairs, the Horses even having an explicit policy of tolerance towards freeborn Warriors. For them, anyone who was good enough to test out as a Warrior was a Warrior, end of story. And yeah, they tended to get stuck piloting combat vehicles, but given that those were assigned to front-line formations since the Horses loved their combined arms, pretty sweet deal.
As to Clan Sea Wolf/Diamond Shark...
They were Le Happy Merchants even before they gave up the pretense and started wandering the Inner Sphere like a bunch of Jews buying and selling and making more money than Ferengi. This of course made other Clans very unhappy, but they had the money and contacts to call in help from their rivals.
Not gonna lie, being the only "Capitalism, ho!" Clan is pretty damn appealing to me, and it unironically paid off for them in terms by having a very large, successful Clan. Oh, and they also founded the Clan Internet (Chatterweb). They are also canonically fond of shitposting, which is an attribute all of us Kiwis can agree is a major plus.
Months prior to Clarke's election, Khan Liam Howell of the Snow Ravens had become incensed at his Clan's recent defeat by the Sea Foxes for control of the oil fields of Priori. Having learned beforehand of the attack via the Chatterweb, the Sea Foxes defeated the Snow Ravens in battle, then proceeded to fill the Chatterweb with insults directed at the Snow Raven Khan and his fighting skills (or lack thereof).
Yeah, Snow Raven got their revenge, but only temporarily thanks to said banter skills.
Its a long story.
Finally, later that year, the Diamond Sharks struck a deal with the Jade Falcons, exchanging their assets on Lum for the right to settle Twycross. The Jade Falcons believed they had finally gotten the better of the Diamond Sharks until 3065 when it was revealed that Jonah's Reach, a near-lifeless planet in the Twycross system, was a second source of HarJel. This turn of events caused no small amount of insults and threats between the two Clans on the Chatterweb.
[AUTISTIC FALCON SCREECHING]