Pixela, do you ever stop the constant train of negativity? You can say there's no thought put into newbies, but I disagree highly:

1) RoE System - free experience points and points to spend towards weapons and scrolls, coupled with a chat message that literally bothers you every time you enter the zone until you start it. Through this system, people can see how to start quests for new jobs, or for limit breaks; people can see where to begin crafting, or different places they can kill things. It's a great leveling system that's far superior to how we used to have it.

2) Trust System - With the game being top-heavy, this provides players with allies that do not detract from EXP gain and in fact make it far easier to EXP. Windurst offers a healer right off the bat; all you have to do is complete for your nation if you're not from Windurst. Can't get there? San d'Oria is good backup, and though Excenmille is only /PLD for healing purposes, those cures are good support and give you a chance to get out in the world. Believe me, I know how hard it is without having them; while I'm leveling my mule's character, I ended up leveling WHM to 30 first to get Sneak/Invisible so that I could make it to Jeuno and get my chocobo license to get to other zones. Of course, you could just buy oils/powders and look up a few maps, and you'd make it just as easily to Jeuno.

3) HP Teleport system - With the HP system, you only have to get anywhere once; you only have to take the airships/chocobo ride once, and from there you can hop around much more easily to do things in multiple nations. This allows for easier unlocking of job quests, and when coupled with Survival Manuals gets you to a variety of different places (I use the one at Qufim to get to Lower Delkfutt's, since Windurst never has the zone to let Illu get the OP ><).

New players actually have a system that's very friendly to them. The only problem is that A) most are afraid/unwilling to ask for help or information, and B) it's a very lonely ride up to the middle/upper levels unless you have friends to do it with. The early levels are indeed quiet, which is why I'm glad I have my linkshell; even leveling solo with trusts, I can at least talk to people, etc. So if anything, I think the biggest detriment to new players is the lack of community around them. There need to be more purely-social shells around to help people out, but that's on the community and not SE.

Back to the OP, I still think shouting for help works wonders. Ironically, I was just shouting for a crafter to make me a Scorpion Harness a few minutes after suggesting it to you. Took about twenty minutes of shouting every 3-4 minutes (but I was eating lunch at the same time, so it wasn't a time detriment) but I got a tell soon after and the crafter was more than happy to come to me to craft since I don't have Adoulin access on Illu just yet. NQ'd it, but it only took 20 minutes and about 20k in materials off of the AH to get it crafted. Low-end stuff that people don't really buy now, but by interacting with the community, I got what I was looking for. You should really try getting the materials and shouting for the items you're looking for; it'll save you a ton of time, and with crafters at the higher levels, you may get a handful of HQs too.