I already conceded that its somewhat marketing speech. But how will we define progress?
If its about map stages?
Everyone has the chance to best every map stage. @Pike showed that you can best Valhalla hard mode with a vanilla team!
Is it about Raids?
You can enter the top 5000 in cups with knowledge, a few flasks, luck and a well composed 4* team.
Titans?
With the right alliance you can kill 10*+ Titans with a mediocre team.
Events and tournaments?
Top 1000 Legendary is hard stuff and needs a good team and some flasks/items, but top 5000 epic and top 10000 rare is doable with vanilla heroes.
Buildings?
You can build every building for free! Is a vip pass and second builder „slightly“ faster? I think its a matter of perception, the game is no sprint but a marathon, so 3-4 months more building time without vip might be „slightly“ if you take into concern that you can get 70 days vip pass for free with 20 invitations (alt accounts ?).
Result: I might not like the wording of SG but I can not find blatantly false statements or deceive.
Make your peace with the devs or you will never have a real good experience with this game. If in your perception everything (new ) is bad or money grab you will miss the fun. That would be very sad.
Happy gaming, take it easy, have fun.
Happy gaming