I've managed to have a few conversations with Faction Warfare veterans over the years, trying to figure out why CCP has consistently neglected this particular component of the game. One of the stonewalls that appears to exist in the minds of the upper management at CCP is that dedicating large resource piles to an area of the game that has as few people as faction warfare does.

Brisc gave a recent confirmation of sorts of that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/po49gv/eve_2021_roadmap_revealed/hcuktpm/

However, this to me fundamentally ignores the LARGEST gap that currently exists in the new player experience. CCP has spend thousands of manhours at this point reworking the NPE 15 different ways from Sunday, but at the end of the day, it NEEDS to spit you out into the world of EVE online so you can actually start playing.

What do you need to keep the new players playing, keep them engaged? - Corporations that do things they want to do.

What do those corporations need? Leaders.

What do those leaders need? The resources to provide new players with a good experience, without burning themselves out

Think about where the OTHER new player options get their resources from. Highsec corporations require significantly fewer resources, since explosions are much rarer, so they can get by with buybacks and limited taxation on missions and structures. They can also utilize others' freeported structures, in order to save even more money. The Nullsec new player options rely on the resources of the gigantic blocs that support them in order to feed money into their new players. Lowsec, and Faction warfare specifically, don't generate the resources to let people grow new player corporations without getting burnt out spending their own money. Honestly, if someone approached me asking how they should go about making a new corporation or alliance independent of the blocs.... I would tell them that they're screwed unless they're willing to sink hundreds of billions of isk into the endeavor.

On top of this, the Nullsec New player option isn't what it used to be. Gone, for the most part, are the days of endless atrons and the like. Much of this is that the game has matured, and developed, and metas have become more refined. You can't go back to a day where everyone collectively had less game knowledge, fewer capitals, fewer resources. For someone without AT-tier game knowledge, roaming around NS in a Tech 1 Cruiser-down will get you dunked, and you won't learn anything.

The key, then, is not to think about Faction Warfare as what it is now. Instead, it needs to be thought about in the context of what it could be. The breeding ground of new corporations, an easy direction to point new players hungry for PvP, a space that thousands and thousands of players can call home either temporarily or permanently, not just a dozen tiny corporations that are clinging to thoughts of the good old days.