Personally I’d say steem ninja or blocktrades is the easiest way or rather let me say shortest way to getting a steem account, easy is a relative term so for now yes they are the easiest ways to get in
As for a on boarding outside the traditional steemit interface is have to say splinterlands has by far outstripped any dapp and sits second only to steem in on boarding new users, partiko used to do a good job but they’ve gone quiet over the last few months