I’ve heard the lower stats, but I’m not sure I agree. I’m learning Mandarin and have gone through the entire HSK6 character list - and I’m still having to look

I’ve heard the lower stats, but I’m not sure I agree. I’m learning Mandarin and have gone through the entire HSK6 character list - and I’m still having to look up lots of characters when I read the newspaper, novels, etc. 10,000 might be a bit high, but I think a typical literate Chinese person knows a lot more characters than you’d expect.