Most people who come to Facebook do so because they already know people who use it. It may be that way with X/Twitter, but since I don't use that platform, I can't say. In the case of Facebook, it's a top-down environment where everyone finds what they need in one place. To a lesser extent, MySpace was the same way.
When it comes to Hive, it's like living where we live. It's easier to get around a town when we know people in that town and when we know where things are. In that situation, we can get used to living in that town after a few days.
On the other hand, if we came to a town where the only people we know are our shadows and reflections, then it can take us a while to find our way around town. It's even more difficult if we aren't familiar with the language or even system of writing. Eventually we figure things out thanks to friends we make along the way, but it takes a while to get to that point. Hive is like this.
Many of our fellow Hivers have published posts which are meant to be guides to people new to Hive. Since these posts are at their respective profile pages, it can take time to find these guides.
As bad as Hive (as a whole) is at onboarding new Hivers and then retaining them, it was much worse when I came here in April 2021. For people like us, it's a matter of trial-and-error in figuring out how to get around here.
After wandering through the Hive wilderness for about 2 months, I discovered a place where people were responsive to my needs and offered me help if I asked for it. The details are different for each of us, but this is usually how things turn out.
Things get better once we begin to engage with others here. We get to know who people are, they get to know who we are, we interact with each other, and along the way we publish content which may (or may not) earn us HIVE, Hive Power, and HBD. Once we get into a groove, we get around faster and do more in less time. But getting into that groove takes a while.
Here's one theory on why Hive is "bad for newbies": It's that way by design in order to weed out those who come here strictly for the cryptocurrency. I have zero proof on this; it's just my theory. However, when this weeding out process is done, the people who stay are the kind of people who want to build a community for themselves and for other like-minded people.
It's never easy for pioneers, and that's what we are at Hive: pioneers. One day Hive will be as newbie-friendly as the Big Tech platforms, but much more has to happen before we get to that point.
Hive not being a new user friendly is one of the major thing affecting it growth. The future is now, web 3 is with us hive team as to adopt new strategy to move the project forward.