I'm currently approaching 500 hours on dreaming Spanish (491 today, started in January doing 2 hours a day). I have only just started reading grading readers and am comfortably reading at B2 I intend to to try the harry potter books next. I have done essentially zero grammar or vocabulary study (one or two YouTube videos on common phrases are the exception), I am just beginning to be able to watch regular Spanish content (e.g. YouTube about my interests from Spanish presenters, or netflix over a VPN) and understand what is happening.
I have also avoided speaking as much as possible.
What I'm noticing is far less mental translation these days and far easier to create my own thoughts in Spanish and very recently I've started to experience dreams in Spanish (especially since I started reading in Spanish).
I now have absolutely no doubts that the ci only method of learning functions and is the best known way to learn a foreign language.