After reading through the looong gold card thread, I did see two people who got approved under Tech based on merit, and they didn’t have patents or anything crazy like that. But others got denied, so it does seem difficult.
The most interesting thing I read was that someone was approved under Economy by getting them to accept their business income (K-1) in place of salary (W2).
I wonder what the odds are of this happening again…
I think my best bet is to apply under Economy, with business income, and then as a backup hope they would approve me in that category under “Those recognized by the relevant central competent authority as outstanding professional talents”, based on running a successful business that has clients globally.