The traditional path for a tech diver is to be an open water diver racking up tons of dives, and then at some point going tech. But today you have a people who get into the sport for tech diving, or soon after starting getting the tech bug and move toward that goal pretty quickly. I didn't get into diving to go tech, but thanks to an early taste on a cenote tour, and a general interest in WW2 history, I pretty quickly oriented myself toward cave and tech diving.
My general timeline across about 2 years of diving:
Cavern - about dive 50
App Cave - Around dive 125
AN/Helitrox - Around dive 150
Full cave - Around dive 170
Stage cave - around dive 200
I took a little bit of a slower path from App Cave to Full cave than the person that was the reason you started this thread for. But I moved quickly from open water to cave, documented in a thread within the tech forum. Do I think I would've had an easier time if I had a few more dives. Definitely I think I could used at least another dozen or so dives figuring out my sidemount kit before starting cave or having a drysuit so I wouldn't have been fighting the cold as well as what I needed to learn.
But I'm not sure what another trip to Cozumel, the Keys, or South Florida would've added. To me it seems like there is only limited crossover between open water and tech diving. For me the only things that seem to crossover is a general comfort in the water, and buoyancy control.