I have played Eve Online so many hours, and it’s a bad game. Don’t do it. you will spend hundreds of hours dreaming about the cool thing you’ll do later, but for 99% of players the cool thing will never happen. You will be part of the one percent’s cool thing.
Do you have a similar game?
What do you mean by “progress” though? I played the entire story, did all the puzzles and the events I found entertaining. And I never needed additional accounts or to grind in any way.
I got stuck on bosses a few times. Maybe just a skill issue, idk. I also never had enough world level to unlock the next story quest whenever I finished a main story mission, I had to go through boring side stuff for a while every time.