But the one at the top has a bigger pyramid than anyone below. The early adopters have also cleared the pool of most of the easy catches, so your chance of building the pyramid is reduced.
Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that you don't really "climb" or "reach the top" - if you aren't at the top, you can either fail or succeed by building underneath you, but you're not going to get to the top and the one above you will forever have a bigger pyramid than you do.
Leaf nodes quit, the specific people in the chain above you gain as you grow but just because someone get in at stage 2 does not mean anyone is still under them.
Yes and no. In most mlm compensation schemes, your override compensation is only calculated downward a finite number of generations.
So it is actually very common for someone at the top of the pyramid to have a smaller income than someone several levels below them. Because if you have a much larger team closer to you, you are getting a larger share of their revenue than the guy 5 levels up. In fact, he may be so far above you, that he doesn't get any share of your revenue.
In fact, I would say that your very earliest people usually earn substantially less than those below them who may still be actively working and building. (because the earliest may be retired or focusing on other things). The compensation schemes are built this way to keep people from simply resting on their laurels and not building anything of value after finding a few good men.