Its fake news that you can't get a pileup going on SSB unless its the bottom of the sunspot cycle.
Apparently, you need to read more. I have read reports from DXpeditions, even to rare places, that have (on certain bands and modes) that
did have trouble raising pileups. Not always, to be sure. But we aren't talking about always. Just sometimes.
I have experienced it myself. The first few days of the VK0EK expedition, I had very little trouble getting into the log. It was clear that their initial station was having trouble being heard. Anywhere. When they were fully operational, it was a different matter. But I got in the log early because I had the advantage in gear and maybe propagation those first few days when I was on. They did steady business, but not at the clip you would expect and not with the pileup you would expect either.
Some of these places are a long ways away from
anywhere. Bouvet and Heart are two such.