Yes, you pointed out exactly what new users need to aim for - discoverability. Whilst there are curators going around mainly to find new users and good content, it is simply time-consuming (I say that because I personally read 5-10 or even more long-form articles a day and manually curate). But I don't really go around looking for new users to read and curate and that's one flaw too xD
Like you, I like threads because of what it offers us - getting discovered fast and yes, easy to interact without having to read hundreds of words.
I like the way Leo is doing with the Stake-Based curation. Maybe it could be applied too, specifically for newbies, not based on their stakes but their content quality and interactions?
I think it's wrong that people need to jump into discord and other places to start interacting and be noticed that seems like a huge weakness that should be talked about and addressed.
It would be good if users interact on-chain than anywhere else. Although there are communities that require some presence in Discord (which I personally do not support if it is only meant for one to get his content curated).
I do like your idea of those with decent stakes to cast upvotes to their onboarded users' posts. We know for sure there are things that needed to be done when it comes to curation on Hive and hopefully, these will be discussed and attended to especially when there are many new users coming aboard. Because whether we like it or not, upvotes can be a good way to retain users.