As to your question on buddies, I find them with my friends, family, facebook groups, the dive sites themselves, etc. I routinely dive with new people at the local quarry (3 different buddies this weekend alone for instance).
Sometimes the buddies are very experienced. Sometimes they only have their certification dives so far. Sometimes they're really good buddies. Sometimes they need to be rescued. Sometimes I decide quickly that I can't safely dive with them.
This weekend two of the buddies I had were inexperienced, one with just his certification dives to date (and that was finished last October), the other with 15 dives and none this year either, and the third buddy was doing his first quarry dive but had over 130 dives in total. The one with 15 dives did great (other than silting the place up with flutter kicks), in fact you wouldn't have been able to tell much difference between him and the guy with 130+ dives.
The other needed help getting his gear together/on, then I decided we'd start our dive at a shallow training platform since I was concerned how he was going to do (and I learned from my experience with another insta-buddy that I really need to observe my dive buddy very closely until I'm confident in their abilities). That turned out to be a really good idea as he had no control underwater at all. Literally falling in every direction (including backward) and flailing all over. At one point he was trying to use his snorkel to control his BCD (grabbed the end of his snorkel and thought he was holding the inflator). It was quickly apparent that he was not safe to dive and we surfaced, discussed how he was doing (politely, with his input) and suggested he take a refresher course. He wanted to see if he could "remember how everything goes" so we went back to the platform again for a few minutes before going up and calling that dive. He later went with two more experienced divers, as the next refresher class wasn't until next month. I later found out that he ended up panicking and bolting. Fortunately not from too deep, but he'll be doing the refresher course before diving again I believe.
So what's my point with that story? It's simple. Number of dives doesn't equate to what your skill level is or whether you're ready to progress your training. That's based on each individual's aptitude in picking up diving. If you're "a natural" and figuring out buoyancy and trim and being able to do all the basics is just something you have no problem with, then by all means progress in your training so you learn more and grow as a diver. If you're still struggling with any of those things, get some more practice before expanding your diving education.