Yeah that is a big part of the reason I made my Alt, I just keep it in Bronze-I to avoid the higher fee. I think it's the wrong solution to deter people from playing in those with a higher fee and tying it to RANKED league doesn't make sense either as I can easily get to Gold with Bronze level cards, doesn't mean I can crush Gold level tournaments!
Also, a "Novice" tournament has nothing to do with skill level, it's simply the rules that you have to abide by, namely level 1 cards and no legendary's. As long as everyone's following the rules and it's an equal playing field I don't see the problem!
What they really need, if that's their goal, is an MMR / ELO rating for tournaments but I'll stop there cause this is like a whole new blog post in itself.
As for the side question, I'm happy with my guilds right now, but thanks for the offer. You can add mondroid#0429 on discord if you want a direct line to me, always down to talk strategy / meta / whatever.