Not gonna argue/debate this too much, but this doesn't sound like a barrier to "Entry" issue...those are things happening wayyyyy later after Entry
also from hearing some of the Veterans Streamers, on HardCore servers they most often decide Not to purchase any of the High + tomes due to the expense and rather earn it in-game by playing thru the content and getting Favour and earn the tomes that way, and DDOpts along the way...
...and without any of those Tomes, they still have No problems playing thru the adventures with Parties, Groups due to the Player Skills and Knowledge developed which are arguably (as has been already argued elsewhere in the Forums so need Not be "Re-Litigated" here) to be Vastly Important differentiator or "catch-up mechanism" that any Players can do and "for free"(just time to learn) - mechanism being the Learning of the Game whether by learning from your friends who introduced the game, party/group/guild, or learning from watching videos, reading forums, Wiki/Compendium, etc. for strategies and techniques ... which is similar to if one wants to be better at say Chess, then one watches how the experts play thru Videos or read books about "Opening Moves" by the Chess Grandmasters, and so forth ...or back in the day one might get those Nintendo monthly magazines to read how to play such-and-such game better or to find out secret locations, etc.
