I agree with all of this. There are also some very desirable Ontario law jobs that don't do OCIs that may only be accessible to people towards the top of the class.
I'd also just add that there isn't a 1:1 correspondence in class rank and success in obtaining an OCI position. I know lots of people who had below average 1L marks (ie bottom half of the class) who landed an OCI gig and some above average who did not.
I don't necessarily disagree with your comment, but I just want to point out that the Ultra Vires Toronto 2L recruit numbers don't capture all positions obtained. For example, you mentioned New York, but the ~15% of the UofT class that get NY jobs aren't counted in the Toronto 2L recruit. When you factor in NY, other international positions (e.g., KWM), "lucrative" non-law jobs (e.g., MBB), non-OCI in-house jobs (e.g., Nestle), and non-Toronto Big Law (e.g., BJ in Calgary), etc., it's probably closer to ~70-75% of the class. There are also the people interested in government, academia, and public sector jobs that make up 10-15% of the class, and not all positions are captured by the 2L recruit numbers (also MAG didn't release their numbers for the 2020 recruit).
Considering the obvious downsides to pursuing a foreign law degree, I'm skeptical of anyone who went that route and can't find even a single negative thing to say about it. I mean, I'm not opposed to a balanced view, but if you're going to offer one I'd expect you would at least be able to acknowledge the challenges and issues associated with that. Also, it tweaks me at least a little that something extraordinarily rare happened to the OP (getting fired from articles) but somehow this has nothing to do with the OP (it was just "dirty politics") or their route through law school. I mean, even if it really was just a terrible, unscrupulous employer, you don't think coming into the legal profession through a route offering fewer options might have contributed to ending up with a terrible, unscrupulous employer?
Anyway, I have no issue with sharing success stories. Certainly they exist, and I'm aware of them. I've worked with lawyers in my field who are foreign graduates and are "successful" as entrepreneurs despite being, quite honestly, shitty lawyers And I've worked with foreign-trained lawyers in my field who are success in the sense that they are genuinely good lawyers. Though as I've observed elsewhere, the correlation between being successful in sole practice as an entrepreneur, and being successful in sole practice in the sense of being good at lawyering, is shockingly weak.
Not much else to add. I have no reason to believe this successful story is less than genuine. But it also isn't an example I'd advise any law school applicant to base their decisions on.