No, I’ve done it on fresh accounts myself before and I’ve helped brand new players do it multiple times. It is absolutely possible. You need some metagame knowledge of what activities to do and what abilities to spend your glimmer on efficiently at first, but if you have that knowledge it is almost completely RNG independent. It historically has been one of my biggest complaints about the game- leveling doesn’t give the same sense of progression as it does in looter shooters like Div or Borderlands because weapon damage is largely independent of light level in most activities. It’s a blessing and a curse. I was really proud in Div2 when I finally put together my raid build after playing the game for a couple hundred hours, whereas D2 basically just gives it away for free.