It's not a totally hidden system. There are plenty of in-game prompts that point you to them. The alert to talk to the Records of Eminence and Tutorial NPCs happene every time you enter your zone, until they are talked to. SE put out a YouTube video detailing the new features when they released them. The patch notes also say what new features have been added. (They don't put detailed patch notes in PlayOnline Viewer anymore since theyare so long, and PlayOnline Viewer only has a resolution of 640x480 no matter how big you stretch it.). It's an online game, they expect you to interact with the web site a bit, or other web sites. That said, they don't hide these new systems, they point you to them pretty persistently. Content that used to be hidden, like unlocking a subjob, advanced job, or job-specific armor, are now in the Tutorial section of Records of Eminence, with detailed requirements on what is needed to unlock them and which NPC to talk to in which zone.
I'm questioning if you've really started and looked at it from the eyes of a current new player. It's not as bad as you are making it out to be, and I know a ton of people on GameFAQs and Reddit that have come new to the game recently and haven't had trouble. My LS has been recruiting new people on a regular basis, and the REDDIT LS on Asura is even more successful (often maxes out the 64 people limit of having a pearl equipped at the same time).