This is concerning but The price of rentals has dropped significantly and one could easily rent say 50 cents worth of bronze cards per day and mix it with the best of them but that is easier said than done. You need to know what to rent. As a Gold level player, I do emphathise with new players such as yourself as I was there once. The notion of playing for free and earning your way up is a tough thing to reconcile for new players, as it is simply a bridge many new players can't cross without investment, but it is new players that are needed to give demand and eventually commit more investment to the game which benefits everyone.
I wish it wasn't the case, but it is the price we all must pay in order to enter into an ecosystem that will someday generate returns 10 fold. I think the best way for new players to get into the game is before creating an account look around and get to know the community. There a scholar type programs out there and you can win plenty of free card prizes on peakD and Twitch Streams. For example for every player that joins me as an affiliate I will delgate some max level bronze level delegations for 2 seasons full seasons for free for 2 splinters and give 200 DEC starting bonus to help you rent and get you started! I also offer channel point rewards in the form of cards for those who just hang out in my twitch stream. There are other programs like this out there. Edit: But I think renting is a good way to earn chests and grow atm with very little investment.
I ecourage you not to give up without exploring the various ways you can maximize your growth for as little investment as possible as this community is amazing and there are plenty of amazing people who are doing whatever they can to help new players grow!
Sadly this was the measure that needed to be put in place to stop the 300k bot accounts farming away value from the game and was costing investors big $ in value return on cards and rewards in the DEC Pool. So it comes down to a matter of reduce bots or face losing more big $ investors and this sadly comes at the expense of new players too. But in order to retain and grow value, you need big $ players over players who cannot commit as much in finances. Since the new rewards system, I am hearing soo many of these returning to the game again.
If you see me live drop into my Twtich stream, we love discussing this topic and I'm always willing to try and help new players overcome some of these issues.