I've been playing for almost 1-1/2 years but epic challenges are relatively recent (last few months).
I would assume the person with 200 epic buildings doesn't have all cheetah but who knows? Throw enough real money and anything is possible. Before, you only had to wait six hours (I think) before you can start a new epic challenge - now, eight hours wait time.
I remember seeing a neighbor city where everthing was Tokyo Town. But just a few weeks into the update. Must've spent real money or hacked the game. The Tokyo Town pieces were (and still are) hard to come by.
At one point, I had >1000 keys. My game got flagged as a hack until they researched and found my keys were legit (thank you Dr Vu disasters and an over abundance of Dr Vu pieces at the time).
I have LOTS of "expensive" specialty buildings (universities, ferris wheels, heliports, Washington monuments, and luxurious casinos). Plus marinas and mountain castles ... hahaha. And almost 400 keys left to use.
My problem: Not enough free time to play.
And that damn annoying change where it defaults to advertising on the global trade market - HATE that change!