As someone who previously built a minnow account up to 15,000 SP, I call BS on that claim. I got visibility by engagement and following and periodically feeding my audience with more positive and helpful feedback (account @l0k1). And I am doing it again, with a new account, although once a week I will have a boost of 85 Steem... In fact, I am just going to be cashing that out, to make sure I keep my fiat surplus ahead of my costs. I'm moving again next month. So most of the growth of this new account will be also organic.
I also like that for the most part, big accounts have stopped playing God so much with new accounts. I am sure that at least a quarter of that big gain I made over 6 months was just ned, bernie, xeldal and others, attempting to reward people for joining the network. There is some aspects of what should be going on that are purely a matter of custom, there is no way to enforce it algorithmically.