C.S. Lewis didn't shun the existence of rings in the article - or act like he wasn't part of one - but describe the distinctions between healthy and unhealthy rings. He ended the article by writing about the upsides of being part of a healthy ring.

In my take on the article, he wasn't advocating some sort of pious refrain, but rather the sort of work it takes to build meaningful connections with other people, instead of shallow connections based on a status game or optimizing for a maximally thick network.

Of course, I'd imagine most social lives contain a bit of both, but a life which only has the latter is definitely a sad one. Not to even speak of a social life based on maximizing the latter.