There are so many legendary who ranked up from zero merits. It's like the data has changed. In 2021, when I was a newbie, I was told that many legendary for their rank before the merit system. This is 4 years later, I'm now a legendary member and we are still hearing same statement. If we compare the data of the legendary members before and after the merit system, we could understand better.
One thing is certain, the legendary members that ranked up to that level after the merit system was introduced can simply confirm the OP advice of we needing patience to get to the top where we're all trying to get to. Every new member goals is to rank up to legendary and it doesn't matter what the Idea behind their discovery of the forum is because immediately you join the forum and see others with high rank and you'll get motivated. It won't be called success if it wasn't something worth celebrating. If it's easy then it won't hold any value so whenever you see anybody complaining about not being able to rank up, they simplest aren't doing something right because if they were doing it right it won't be hard for them. There's a lot of merit on the forum although not evenly distributed among the merit source but when you're doing something right, you'll get some.