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"Great fortunes, if not great reputations, are made..."
Firstly, the subordinate clause between two commas can be removed to get "Great fortunes are made...", so that is clearly entailed by the original sentence.
I take "if not" as creating a contrast. You might expect that along with the great fortunes, great reputations are made: but you would be wrong.
If both great fortunes and great reputations are made:
Great fortunes, and reputations, are made...
Great fortunes, and great reputations, are made...
Great fortunes, not to mention reputations, are made...
Angélica's version ("Great fortunes, or at least great reputations, are made") means that great reputations are definitely made and the fortunes are uncertain.
What I consider to be ambiguous is whether no reputations are made or whether bad reputations are made.
Moving on from just that example, I had a look in BNC for the phrase "if not".
There is a pattern "N is ADJ, if not ADJ" where the second adjective intensifies the first: e.g. "Their targets are modest, if not downright pessimistic." In this pattern the first is true and the second is hypothetical: sometimes implied to be probable, sometimes merely uncertain.
There is a pattern with two verbal phrases covering both sides of a conditional: "If you see Fred tomorrow, ask him to phone me. If not, don't worry: I'll see him on Saturday."
There is the straightforward condition - similar but without the "if" clause. "Heirs to large estates, if not minors, are noteworthy enough for an obituary."
Y hay varios más, pero es hora de acostarme y analizarlos me está costando.
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