The reason for those questions was that in your initial comment, you'd already mostly answered them.

Currently, even with steemcurator support, 90% of people who write Achievement 1 have left within 3 months. I wrote about it some time ago.

So it can't get much worse.

You mention that you don't visit the Newcomers' Community and very few do unless they're a Greeter. As a non-greeter, I did visit as have a few similar minded people like me. We want to find new and interesting authors but instead found a bunch of nearly identical template-driven posts.

Achievement 1 had become a formula. A process that users, new and old would undertake - not on the promise of rewards - but for that label "Achievement 1 Verified/Rx".

The steemcurator votes had already significantly reduced.

Anybody posting in many communities would be sent to the Newcomers' Community, not to introduce themselves in the traditional, community manner, but to get Verified. Greeters had become Private Investigators, whose role it is to interrogate anybody who dares register.

The interrogation was necessary since that simple label, opened the door to Engagement Challenges and Contests. This analysis and conclusion, on the basis of one post. The people assessing - people like you and me.

Let me invite you to try this - look at the 5 most recent Achievement 1's and tell me with a high degree of confidence which are genuinely new users and which are old users creating another fake account. An impossible task. Assessing somebody's intentions in a single post. I wrote about this too, more recently.

What does this create?

An environment where in a single post, genuine, honest people are being asked to stand next to a tree, holding a glass of water. F*** this they think, and leave.

Account farmers think, ok. I know how this goes, I'll get the photo. It's worth it for the contests.

Who gets the steemcurator votes? The honest people, or the scammers?

The Steemit Team saw this. The Steemit Team knew this and had pulled steemcurator support before we'd finalised our changes.

So what's the solution?

1. Greeters don't want to interrogate everybody they meet. That makes it a seriously shit job which nobody wants to do.
2. Nobody can be assessed on a 500 word introduction.
3. Genuine new users don't want to be interrogated. They want to introduce themselves.
4. We need to make it difficult for scammers to run multiple accounts.

Which is where this new initiative starts. We greet people nicely, knowing there's a month to see who they really are. We don't need to see them stood next to a tree or doing a handstand holding a piece of paper. We use this opportunity to greet them, welcome them and give them some tips. Introduce them to the fact that it isn't all about the money - there's a community here. This solves problems 1 and 3.

In a month's time, we've got information. Plenty of it and we can then make an informed assessment (problem 2) whereas scammers need to somehow post and write meaningful comments through multiple accounts - without getting caught plagiarising or using AI. Shit, their job just got a whole lot harder (problem 4).

So I'll cover a few specific points:

with the removal of the team newcomer curation account how do you expect these newbies to stay motivated?

There's a human resources model called "The Bath Model". It specialises in motivation and job satisfaction. One element of this is recruitment and the recruitment process. The psychology actually fits life in general - if something comes easily, it's not appreciated. If something comes hard, it's treasured.

So if Newcomers get a load of nice, steemcurator votes simply by using the #newcomer tag, that's their expectation. To constantly earn $5+ for every post. Is that the reality for most users? You answered this yourself: "I myself with my steem power and reputation I'm still going days without votes".

So what's the harm in letting them swallow that pill early?

Also, before our time, look at what Steemit was before Justin Sun's acquisition. A community. Not hundreds of sheep chasing a steemcurator for an upvote. They didn't have a dedicated voting account and they attracted authors who had the freedom to express themselves. Some extremely interesting authors - a handful of which are still here today. Rewards don't keep these people here which you can see by the (ir)regularity of their posts. And it's these people who give Steemit its heart - not the thousands of contest entries.

Why would people get certified now?

Pride? Removal of any doubt? To have that "Achievement 1" label? The same reason you open that app 100 days in a row to earn that badge?

Maybe fewer people will do it. Hopefully fewer people will do it (because that'll mean the scammers have been deterred). Maybe it will become more meaningful and with that meaning, more people will do it.

Who knows? But it's better than just letting the concept of greeting newcomers just die. For now at least.

As for dodgy Admins, Moderators and Communities - Provide some tangible evidence and it will go somewhere.