That's not much of a useful consideration then; a more relevant question is how some non-negligible percentage of people can achieve at least moderate success, not how a handful of people can do something anomalous that gets famous (that'll always happen one way or another).
how some non-negligible percentage of people can achieve at least moderate success, not how a handful of people can do something anomalous that gets famous
The internet is unarguably a huge advantage for people on the lower end. There are some people who have been knocked form being successful in the traditional media to being successful on the internet only, but that internet group includes them and people who would have never been successful in the traditional media. I don't even think that's a question. The only reason someone who would have been successful in traditional media isn't successful on the Internet is that the increased ease of competition made it clear that they suck and they pushed them out.