1. I usually don't see any dislike of new players outside of Party Finder. Party Finder is just elitist crap 90% of the time. "NO BONUS", "KNOW FIGHT OR KICK", etc...

2. Well yeah, 1-49 is basically just a tutorial, as said by Yoshi-P himself. And 51-59 is mostly about the story. If one is mainly an MMO player, one usually doesn't really care about the story. But if you do care about the story, IMO the game is just as enjoyable outside end-game as it is end-game.

3. I have almost never met people that would be assholes in DF tbh. Sure, when for example the tank REALLY doesn't know how to tank, in Aurum Vale, doesn't ask for tips, and wipes the group on the first boss 3 times, smirky jokes are made "What is the tank doing?" "We have a tank? O.o", just before you vote abandon, but that's about it. I have met like half a dozen of actual toxic players in DF at most, while having run hundreds of DF runs.