What the new changes mean for newcomers like me

So with the latest changes in Splinterlands there are no longer rewards in DEC for players in the Novice and Bronze III tier.

This was meant to make it harder for bots to use Splinterlands as a way to farm rewards. Which is understandable of course.

But what about genuine new players?

So I started playing a couple of weeks ago, my collection power is not big enough to get out of Bronze III and now I also don't have enough DEC to keep buying or renting cards, since I will run out of DEC before reaching Bronze II...

I also don't have enough credits or a voucher to buy cards...

This means genuine new players get caught between a rock and a hard place. I now have a choice to:

1. grind on for a rediculously long time to get enough credits to get myself out of here.
2. Put more money into this game to grow my collection to get out of here.
3. Quit.

To be honest I'm not sure what I will do. I enjoy playing Splinterlands, but this has been a big setback for new players like myself.

Any thoughts or ideas are more than welcome! Let me know in the comments.