I have a feeling we are going to break 300k in the next 24 hours. My buys are posted in preparation for this

I hope not. slow rise of 5% per week is better than large daily volatility.

5% per week is 1264% per year!

Yes.
When the price is this low it is hard to keep the low growth. The low growth comes when the price is high. For instance, until new ATH I would see it very easily going pretty fast without any serious dumps since it is only 3-4 usd/coin and it is kind of psychological barrier that need to overcome. There might start some first more serious selling and the growth rate might fall for a while to 1-2 % per week (this is pure speculation, nothing more nothing less).

If XMR is supposed to be truly anonymous, how do you do distribution analysis to determine how many people have large balances?

This is just an estimation. It can be skewed.

I have written multiple threads with hundreds(!) of posts about it. The body of knowledge is all there (see my sig).

This problem is contained, meaning it cannot have outcomes outside a defined set (limited number of coins and limited number of owners).

The outcomes in the set have a statistical probability maximum at certain points (forming the "most probable distribution curve"). We do not know exactly what the most probable curve is, and we do not know any individual holders' exact holdings. The most probable curve does, however, have bounds, it does follow a certain formula with only the parameters being up to debate. The individual holdings also follow a random statistical sample theory.

Therefore it is possible to construct approximate distributions that are based on the approximations of the parameters in these formulas, and the statistical laws. The probability of the measured result (it cannot be measured of course) being off from the distribution constructed such, is the lower, the further from the approximate distribution. Similarly, it is not possible to say for certain that a d20 would not show 1 if your life depends on it, but the probability of hitting a 1-5 is much higher.

Test builds at first. It getting ready for full release soon shouldn't be a huge surprise since people who have been able to build their own from source have been testing it for months.

Many important pieces of Monero development are falling into place now.

Absolutely. There are at most a few dozen coins out of several hundred on coinmarketcap (I'm told there are close to 2000 total) that aren't abandoned, and that might be a high estimate.

In my opinion some of the traction that Monero is starting to get now (and I believe will continue to get in the coming months) comes from the fact that we are still here and still working on it after almost a year. That's really the only way for an objective outside observer to tell what in this sea of shitcoins is worthwhile -- the test of time.