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But what about the newbies? They're already struggling to build up their accounts.

The economic equilibrium will probably change with the new reward system. So it is a bit hard to say how it will affect newbies. You could argue that it is going to be positive since newbies are unlikely to get flagged in the new subsidized flag-pool system or you could argue that self-votes are going to outweigh the flags. It is bit hard to make an educated guess.