In a decade of working in the industry I have found this to never have been the case. Every promotion I've ever gotten except for maybe the first few gimme promotions was because I was on the radar of someone important enough to make that decision.
Of course, it's a meme now-a-days, that meritocracy is how you (don't) get promoted, which is what the parent poster is lamenting.
My first order of business at any company is to sort people into buckets of "they can help me" and "they cannot help me" and focus entirely on the first bucket. Those "after work beers" (or the remote equivalent) is where most of the work is actually done, imo. That is not to say I am without merit. But the assertion I am making is I could've probably bullshitted my way into even more positions if my moral compass was just a little bit more skewed.
I suppose changing the way you act around a certain person with power is a skill and the reward is the promotion. I know several people at or above my skill level that were promoted either later, or not at all, due to not realizing (or not caring) that merit means almost nothing. Of course, merit is what seals the deal - but "managing your manager" is more important than merit. Similarly, I've used a promotion of my own to put people I like on the right person's radar. It pays to know people. In this case, literally.