Are Small Accounts Doomed There’s No Edge in This Market

The idea of starting with a small account, growing it into $100k+ port is the dream for most but it seems so unrealistic, doing this full-time past a hobby/for fun.

The capital needed to make enough profit to live-off means you already have substantial capital made elsewhere, not starting the race with a small portfolio. Am up 30% for the year, percentage wise is phenomenal, but it's not going to change my life in anyway. Then there's trade-offs to everything, every variable perfectly calculated by machines priced to perfection.

There's only a few strategies when used in certain environments have left in mind which may give edge:

1. Diagonal spreads opened on day of earning's to capitalize on high IV, receive the most amount of premium, and buy longer dated calls 3-6m out which will be unaffected by IV crush. For example, S reported today so would open $26/$29 (8/30-12/20), capturing the higher than usual IV premium, long legs dodge IV crush, and can keep selling against while price moves in my direction. It's utilizing high IV but the trade-off is can only do this every 3 months.
2. Selling covered calls when VIX spikes, most likely shares have tanked in price tremendously, buy shares and sell a far OTM covered call which will offer exceptional premium because VIX is high.
3. Selling cash-secured put when VIX spikes, if price drops further you're getting an exceptional deal on shares and hefty premium to cover downside.

It's basically selling volatility, taking advantage of market event and going long. However, cannot for the life of me decipher any way to get ahead quickly. The time it would actually take would be better spent building a business, earning wealth elsewhere, then coming back to the market, which makes it much easier since need much less percentage gain to be meaningful return, and can utilize basic strategies keeping it ridiculously simple even just selling covered calls for a living.

From my experience with other structures I found noticeable cons:

• Neutral structures don't profit much, safe but small returns. Losses can be far more costly than the wins. Win 3, lose 1, back to square one.
• LEAPS are a huge commitment, can go good for a year and next year wipe out all of your gains. Begs the question why not just buy shares eventually will get burned using such leverage.
• Long calls/puts the price wont go to infinity, no need to overpay, this where spreads come into the picture. Diagonals, calendars, debt spreads are great for trading but have to be right about direction. There's no edge here it's just better way of taking bets, if you're good at predicting direction can do well but with a small portfolio again is it even worth trading?

CONCLUSION: Maybe this is widely known but those getting rich off small portfolio seems to only happen with luck, taking on so much risk things very well could've gone very wrong. So the more capital have to work with, the less ballsy plays need to take, and 1-2% suddenly becomes very lucrative returns. However, if you're at this point you're not going to be needing this money to live-off of like a job anyways. Seems those full-time in the market are already wealthy and and can keep it stupid simple with their strategies while profiting substantially.