The problem with an export led growth model for a large country is that eventually workers make too much money to be reasonably supported by only exports. There’s a ceiling to this model because exporters need willing purchasers.
I think Japan has grown considerably beyond this by exporting their Yen through extremely low interest rates. But even that too has a ceiling. Stretching to the obscene in 100 years, the Japanese people may go extinct, but the Yen will live on continuing to prop up financial markets across the world. The way the US dollar was taken off the gold standard, the Yen has been taken off the Japanese people standard...
This. By definition, you can't outgrow your customers and yet we continue to see exporting countries try to outgrow their consumer counterparts simply by doubling down on exports rather than transitioning to consumer economies (or worse - trying to supplement exports with bad investments).