Personally, as someone who unlocked "the hard way," I am going to tell you all to unlock early if you can.
I don't know how many times I've heard, "I would support you if ink was unlocked." from my readers over the course of my time on tapas.
It's not cheating to get ink unlocked early, embrace it.
It helps fund tapas too (they get a percentage) and it gives your readers another way to support you besides liking, commenting, and subscribing. Do eeet.