I agree with your confusion around Beck & Cowan's use of "Meme" for the worldview/developmental level. I prefer "worldview" to vMEME (this is how they use it in the book), which means "value Meme." They use the all-caps MEME to signify a meta-meme, a Meme that contains many other related memes. Poor choice on their part, I think.

The reason I prefer "worldview" over "developmental level" is that a vMEME contains elements from all quadrants, while a developmental level tends to be limited (in people's minds) to the individual, and usually the interiority of the individual. To me, a worldview can incorporate individual development, both interior and exterior, but also can include collective values (interior) and the social structures that contain them (exterior).

The first tier / second tier distinction is somewhat arbitrary, except that a first tier person is "trapped" within their specific worldview. A second tier person is free to assume all the lower worldviews as needed.

I do wish that Beck or Cowan would do an updated book on SD--one that includes Wilber's developmental lines through all the quadrants. But then Cowan thinks Wilber is full of sh!t, and Beck isn't Wilber's biggest fan since he started referring to SDi as a values line rather than an integral theory.

-Bill