MTT mid stages

If main strat is to play tight early and loose late, what do we do when we're stuck in the middle with 30-40 bbs, where everybody is playing 20% of their range? I mean there is no real room to apply pressure at this point since the spr is just too damn small to do anything. You will open your A8o from UTG(7-8 handed), get called by T9 or JT or some BS, there is just no room to apply anything imo

EDIT: And recently won 2 tourneys by just playing tight in those mid stages slowly fading out to 20bbs and basically cut my way through by sheer fold equity which seems pretty high variance