I was in your boat at 500tt. I went the survey route which led to other opportunities too. It could be faster or slower just depends on a lot of outside factors like weather, project availability, aircraft maintenance etc.
There are a lot of factors to determine if changing to survey or staying instructing is a good choice. All those factors deal with your personal preference.
For me, I met a lot of good and not so good people had some great experiences and learned a lot. So for me it was worth it.