As someone actively investing in STRs and looking to scale, this raises some concerns for me about the long-term viability of this strategy.I understand the tension between hotels and STRs, especially in popular tourist destinations, but I’m curious:How real is this threat?

If your goal is cash flow, then your best bet may be to live in it for 2 years, and then take that tax free gain (250k single person, 500k married) and buy elsewhere. 

In these markets, I would be worried about crime, activity of illegal immigrants, and such. 

Your best bet is to get on the phone, get multiple opinions, multiple quotes, and make decisions on the type of build before pulling the trigger.

Also your plans may change during the next 3-4 years while you’re in school so sitting tight and building your nest egg may be the best bet until you graduate.

I keep coming across posters asking for advice on how to “scale” their investment or business activities.  

I spent a decade in advertising, before founding and running a custom wood shop for another decade, so 'm pretty good at the self-promotion.I agree with you that the more gorilla approach would be most effective and that's actually what i've been doing – calling RE agents in my service area with active listings, introducing myself to property managers and leasing agents...To answer your question, I will have to handle the work myself for 6-12 months to build out the SOPs and field service management systems, but I have a lot of relationships for those looking to "do the work".I'll check out the meet up and would love to grab a cup of coffee, I'll shoot you an email.

Is this just someone betting big on inflation?  

The plan includes high-yield activities such as property flips and strategic acquisitions to provide liquidity and generate returns.

We had to make sure we sidestepped them and only added information to the correctly entered, active applications.