First of all, I think I'm at the top maybe half the time at most, and a bunch of people have been getting consistently better since we started this. An average day for me is 30-40, the best days are sub 20, and the worst crack 60-90. If you happen to catch a day where you know all the clues right away, sub-20 is very doable - and I've seen a few people get that here at one point or another. Both the reading and typing speeds get faster the more you do this (or any reading/typing activity where you're trying to get faster and faster for that matter).
Funny you quoted that post, since today was nearly the same setup for me as that one - skipped 1 across (only ever had a fruit flan, so never would've gotten that), got 5, 6, 7, 8 right away (8 was a guess but turned out right) and then filled in the top row via the downs.