Given the high rake at micros, and given that it seems many people are using Real Time Assistance software to make their decisions, is there now no way to rise up the stakes and make it big with just good old fashioned hard work?

Yes. Online cash is mostly dead cause you can't tilt villian like live poker as phil hellmuth THE GOAT does. But tournament is just like lottery ticket given the skill level among the players are almost the same.

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The poker is dead argument has been around since like 2008, but as of today it's still not.

I know Fedor Kruse puts a bad light on "The Dream", but the fact is we have no idea how many people do or do not get caught on each site. As ways to cheat get better and better, so do methods of catching cheaters.

It is probably a lot a lot harder to climb the ladders today, but if you really enjoy that process and the game I would say that the dream is still alive.
gl

Also, withdrawal money from poker site can be label as money laundering esp if you withdrawn a big amount in one shot. Government will try to lock your bank account down.

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Widespread bots and RTA (both of which will get better and spread further)
Next to zero rakeback (for winning regs) on main sites or unregulated Apps, which are already attracting regulatory action and on which cheating/collusion is known to be rife.
Increasing government and/or regulatory action.

You do the math

Poker has tended to go through booms and busts over time. There have been a few times that I can recall people saying "poker is dead, no point in playing". OTOH, there have been other times where basically having a starting hand chart and not going on total screaming monkey tilt, and you could make decent money playing cards. I'd guess that some number of new players (even now) will make it to being profitable full time pros. Right now, that number won't include "every single person with a decent starting hand strategy and a clue" like it did in the early 2000's.

The concept of starting with a few bucks in the micros to work up to being a full time pro was a rare, maybe one-time thing.
Other than the best of boom times, poker success always depended on hard work. What's the best thing for you to do to improve to where you are to pro level good play? Maybe someone has a good idea.

Poker dream is alive if you have a table full of droolers. Leave the table ASAP if everyone is playing super tight.

high rake/low rewards and segregation/ring fencing are bigger threats to online poker than real time assistance.