SDIRA and the middle class trap

[Kyle Luman]

Toward the end of the BP money podcast recently on SDIRA, Scott Trench made a comment about how using a SDIRA to invest in real estate could help people get out of the middle class trap (all or most of one's wealth being in the primary residence and qualified retirement vehicles). I see how using a SDIRA to invest in real estate can help to diversify one's portfolio and could be advantageous overall, but I don't really see how it moves someone out of the middle class trap. The money that was in index funds in the IRA or 401(k) is still in those qualified vehicles, just invested differently. One still would have to go through hoops (set up a Roth IRA conversion ladder, access your 457 money first or rule 72t (SoSEPP)) to access those funds if one retires early. Am I missing something?