I haven't played yet, but I do own some cards. Once I have sometime I intend to learn how the game is played.
With regard to the elitist tournaments, I don't know if it is possible to change that. It is the same problem Steemit has how do you get people to change their behavior? I think what we need to do is support others who are helping out the little guy grow their account.
Be a role model, not a lift.
None should support particular newbies in order to grow the network. You can do that if you want, but it is generally dangerous and not very sensical. Get invested and give people power over you and they will abuse it. It's a dangerous thing to do. The better option is always to strengthen urself and also shape the environment the right way for others.
Splinterlands kindergarten
The System, in general, should be filled with more newcomer-friendly stuff. It should be helpful in raising a new player. The way a kindergarten is filled with child-friendly equipment and the kids can learn to play alone.
I wasn't necessarily suggesting that we support individuals to help them grow. You mentioned in the post that @monstermadness and @zaku were doing things support new players. Their efforts can be supported or adopted by others.
As I stated, I have yet to play the game, I agree that friendly stuff should be part of any system that wants to bring in new users.
But we don't see that. The biggest players should make ~20k DEC (100Steem) every single day... I wonder how long a system that has grown so fast can sustain stable... if the player base is not growing significantly.
I understand that without new players the system may not be sustainable. It may take the learning from the realization that it no longer works to create change. Also, the beauty of the blockchain is that someone may step in and create a similar game, but from the get-go prevent it from being an elitist game.