I think this is good progress.

However, I'm not sure all prospective users will see it this way, as they don't necessarily understand why they are paying third parties to create what they think they should be getting for free. As one person on Reddit said to me when I described the 3rd-party options to them: "If you need a "paid account creation service" to get approved, then it's just a scam".

OK, so it's not a scam (that I'm aware of), but for people accustomed to getting what they want online instantly, this might not sit well.