"Unless one has a nice chunk of money to buy a large amount of STEEM, the chance of growing an account organically to those levels in SP is not great. STEEM simply is getting to hard to earn."

Nowadays the price of the Steem and the price of the Steem Dollars (SBD) is close to $1 USD, so this is probably a good opportunity to buy a large amount of Steem and Steem Dollars (SBD), if you have enough money, but you don't need much/a lot right now. Or "a nice chuck of money" as you said.
Currently (2018.08.04, 14:00 CEST) the price of the Steem is $1.21 USD and the price of the Steem Dollars (SBD) is $1.09 USD at the moment.
The prices were much higher at the end of the last year and at the start (in the first five months and a small part of the sixth month) of this year. $2-$10 USD or more. The Steem Dollars (SBD) was above $10 USD in that time.
For example: The price of the Steem Dollars (SBD) was $16.17 USD on 2017 December 19.
The all time high for the Steem Dollars (SBD) was $22.34 USD on 2017 May 17.
Just saying.