Were you mingling exclusively with hedge fund managers and venture capitalists
?
There are 10 odd million people living within the boundaries on NY City and that many again in the greater NY metro area , the vast majority of whom, IME, have pretty normal personalities and are quite helpful to strangers.
Having said that, one can run into obnoxious folk anywhere, but that ought not detract from the intrinsic merit of the city.
I personally have had some very unpleasant experiences when visiting the UK, from rude sales staff at Harrods to the dismissive proprietor of a high end audio store (now defunct, name on request) where I went to buy a Revox tuner-preamp, was refused access to the facilities, told to use the loo at the local train station and come back to finalise the transaction. Then there was the truly obnoxious proprietor of a camera store in Camden (Nicholas Camera?) who responded to my polite enquiry about a second hand Leica displayed the store by asking me in a very aggressive tone why should he sell me that camera when he had regular customers who would buy it anyway. My response to such situations is to shrug and walk away. Life is too short, etc. it’s the individuals, not the city.