I like those ideas.

Def like the idea of it being mainly tied to Sprouts and first time runs. (which i have been seeing a lot more of recently)

I work in Customer service, so a thought would be to have a Survey (although it then makes the game like work XD) But if they could do it in a fun way, for the new player, could be something like rate player X from 1-5 based on how helpful they were. And the Sprout then gets to choose 1 item from a loot pool for the dungeon/instance, or choose between extra gold/exp/tele tickets for guildhests as a reward for participating.

I did leveling roulette the other day and had a healer who was very new, depsite being level 37, they were still Conjurer and had all int/Vit accessories, but did have level 32-35 regular gear. It was Titan, and they literally had no clue what they were doing. The 3 of us who had done it before were giving pointers the whole time, we wiped about 15 times, it was a disaster, but in that instance, letting them choose from a weapon from that run would only help them, as well as giving feedback on the mentors in the group would encourage better mentoring.

I am glad they have commendations and mentors, but i think it is something they should invest more time into.
Part of what made FFXI a Great game was the community and the willingness to help others. XIV has so many aspects where you Need to group, but due to the random nature or DF, there isn't a connection with any of the people you group with. They need something to encourage the comradery in this game.