Interesting, I agree that it is a bit of a barrier to entry for newcomers. On new accounts, how many HP do they give them? Waaaay back in the day when it was still STEEM, they gave I think ~25 HP with new accounts for a while (back when it was only worth a few pennies I think), but now with it being worth nearly $1 that is not possible of course.
I hear that you can lend out some/all of your HP to others, is that right? Perhaps there could be a charity account that would lend newbies 25-50 HP for a few weeks to get started, and they wouldnt run our of RC too quickly and could make at least a small amount of earnings from curation. Not sure how the rewards would be split between the new account and the lender, though?