Unless you're working on the absolute cutting-edge, you don't need every member of the team to be at the top of their game. It's happened many times in sports that a team full of too many superstars underachieves.

If you ask for single referrals, how do you combat the problem of people just recommended people based on friendships and not actually work quality?

Pointing out a few examples that didn't go anywhere is a meaningless argument. You need to look at it holistically.

It's going to take time to earn trust from peers and your manager to start getting more meatier work. If you're early career, I think 2 years is a good guideline. Many places hiring someone for their second job will expect you to be leaving your first job around 2-ish years. 2 years gives you the chance to take on larger projects and see the results of your work and get feedback about things you've pushed to production.

You probably shouldn't stay at your first job more than 3 or 4 years. The second job change is the hardest. It's when you realize that different companies do and value things differently. Staying too long at your first job will make it tougher to adjust. It's also good to get exposure to new ways of working while you're still agile enough to soak it up.

If you've left more than 2 or 3 jobs within 2 years it starts to look like a red flag.

You're saying though that it can be done in one week without eating any protein and somehow you'll maintain muscle mass from taking a supplement of acai berry. Most of that weight loss is going to be water weight and glycogen, not fat. It seems dubious. All weight loss plans basically end up being "eat less calories that your body uses". There's no way around that.

You say the meal plan is 1800 calories. If you have a petite woman doing this, her caloric outake may be around that. Consuming 1800 calories for her is not going to do anything.

Did you mean to link to the video? I would be interested.