I would say slow progression is a good thing. You want to learn how to combat those ancient players with purple and orange everything because they are around in every tier (Not as much t4, but still exist there). Having maxed out ships and at least all green modules will get you far. Whenever you get a new ship be prepared to spend the extra money to get it green as soon as you buy it, and maybe have extra synergy waiting to get it to lvl 4 atleast (otherwise do pve to get it to 4 before pvping in it).
I know how frustrating it is to deal with squads or even just randoms of elite pilots in T3. Fighting tougher opponents is the only way to become better though, except when they are spawn killing (Shame on you who do).
I don’t know if you are in a corporation or not, but you should join a pvp based corp and get to know some of the pilots and fly with them. If they are helpful, they will teach you some tactics and ship builds that will help you improve faster and upgrade your ships better. Flying in squads also helps (provided you are on comms and can communicate).
Tier rushing is a bad thing, unless you have a lot of money and are a very quick learner (Need both to be good).