The point of conservatism is either to preserve the current status quo or to regress back to previous social hierarchies regardless of argument or evidence to the contrary.

Sez who? Conservatism doesn't have a point. Conservatism is a label more or less loosely applied post hoc to some constellation of beliefs and attitudes. Some conservatives are simply cautious. They don't have in mind the retention of any particular state of affairs, just a healthy skepticism that what is new isn't necessarily better. Circumspection and caution are conservative attitudes. They have nothing to do with substance.

Some people who are labeled "conservative," by themselves or by others, are so labeled because they do want to preserve a situtation that works fine for them. But that isn't what makes them "conservative." They and their attackers, who assign opposite connotations to the word, just like using the label. But that's all it is, a label. It is not an agenda.