It's very obvious to me that RC costs need to be dynamic based on the current strain and struggle of the network... that might be a very end game goal though considering the complexity of such an algorithm.
Even if creating accounts is no longer free, we can still reduce the cost of them, or allow them to be traded and bought based on debt. If an account costs 3 Hive, a frontend can put new accounts 3 Hive in debt. The custodian of the account would remain in technical control until the debt was paid. There are many ways to play this.
Looking at it with a "long-term" lens, Hive @ $5 would mean $15 for account creation (just for example).
Since claiming tokens (done by whales and other onboarding projects) help to reduce the burden-cost on the Newbies on Hive, then I think for post HF26 we will witness a rapid increase in the scarcity of free accounts. Projects like Hiveonboard and ecency may explore alternative ways of making accounts available; maybe reduction in price or limited quantity of account creation per day.
I also key into your idea of exploring other means like to buy/trade the account on debt. However, with the rate at which many Newbies end their Hive journey after their introductory post or after seeing that Hive isn't a "Get-rich-quick-scheme" we may end up struggling to pay the debt of these people.
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We can lower the 3 Hive cost for creating an account.
I think we will have to.
Sooner rather than later with this upgrade in play.
We will probably have to lower it to 1 Hive or less.
This will be a plausible move. Let's see what the future holds