I found most of what you said to be true. I think new people have a harder time deciding what they want to play less because of ideas or whatever, and mostly because they don't know exactly what there is and such. One thing that could be nice is some pre-generated characters similiar to the equipment starter packs just for new guys to look at and get a feel for what kind of character they want. It would also be good if they had options on them like 'change this feat to this feat if you want to be more like this, or to this feat if you want to be more like this,' etc. Not even so much for the idea that here is a premade character for a new guy to use, but just a few complete characters as quick examples for new guys just so they can see what options there are.
I'd also like to see, for both new and old gamers, the starter packs made into the equipment section. IE 'adventurer starter pack' includes flint and steel, hooded lantern, backpack, bedroll, 2 days trail rations, waterskin, costs X gold. Sort of a grab-bag, that would speed up buying equipment a lot, and you could have several to choose from.
