Splinterlands has proposed something interesting on this topic very recently, https://peakd.com/hive-engine/@aggroed/introducing-dacter-a-hive-engine-created-opensource-layer-2-based-hive-account-creation-tool
Making the Account cheaper seems a way, putting light accounts up on layer2 two is an approach, but I'd rather like to see accounts being created and priced in by that market. I bought 3 accounts for 5$ each, I waited for my first one (this @manniman) for nearly 3 weeks and I also created some via my claimed creation tokens.