I disagree entirely. I have raised my children to accept they won’t like everyone, nor will everyone like them and that is fine. We will always remain civil and polite regardless of differences. It’s neither civil nor polite to invite 97% of the class and leave out a few children. It’s totally unacceptable.
This to me, and certainly in my circles, would be considered unacceptably rude and inappropriate.
The point of this thread is the very opposite of nurturing inclusivity, kindness and tolerance values. I am not sure what your actual point is.
Fortunately we haven’t had this experience, but we have seen it repeatedly over the years, and the consequences follow later as the child raised to disregard the feelings of others becomes isolated eventually, unable to form straight forward, honest, trustworthy friendships.
Parents that behave like this are setting themselves up for bigger problems later on - and I always judge parents that hurt other children - I am suitably wary of their motives and character after such a move, my first choice being total avoidance if possible, same for 99% of my friends. We are watching.
These types are generally not very nice people to have around. Behaviour like this is usually based in chronic insecurity or over indulgence. Both have negative outcomes for their offspring, and as a result not something we would look for in friends. Children need guidance to make good decisions sometimes.