I disagree. Anyone I've seen in recent months that's been approved outside of the current sequential order of things has always either expedited, filed a K3, or contacted a congress person that was proactive. No one with an earlier than usual approval has not done at least one of these 3 things. And a lot of those are K3 filers that have had earlier than usual approval. Does it work for everyone though? I don't think so. But there are a lucky few who manage to skip the line by months or weeks with it.
I reach out to people on VJ who get an earlier than usual approval, and they've always done one of the 3 things. Same for other channels of discussion on IR1/CR1 processing, I always ask them if they did one of the three. I have not yet encountered a case that was approved earlier than usual and didn't do anything at all from the listed. Not a single case.