The problems I hope to solve...

The problem with the beginning of the game isn't so much that it's too hard or not well done but that there is no one to play with. Everyone that could join you won't because there's no incentive to do so and the beginning of the game is really dull once you have even a star level or two above the recommended.

There are also a number of smaller issues I hope to address with this suggestion. 45K prestige has become a relatively low amount, and higher amounts mean nothing. The arcade is a neglected area that needs a bigger draw to it. Mission difficulty is meaningless, and traps newer players on normal where they fall out of the game and advanced players on elite where they continue to thrive.

The solution to these problems...

Have the more advanced players (and there are many) help out the newer players on missions. It's simple, really-

1.) Prestige and other rewards should be awarded to players for completing escort missions
i.e. if a knight gets credit for that run, your knight receives some goodies too! This reward would be something like 15, 25 or 40 prestige, depending on difficulty level of the mission you're helping with.

2.) Since prestige is basically just a useless number, I would suggest having it unlock things, including extra badges but also other stuff.
Allow knights with over 100K prestige to build the arcade again with minerals (just an idea), allow knights with 500K prestige+ a spot in the hall of heroes as an NPC (that randomly appears) and allow knights with 1 million prestige (Euclidean space?) to occasionally walk around Haven as an NPC when they're offline. Special gear could even be unlocked at 10 million prestige. The higher numbers are meant to keep the game rolling with this increased opportunity to gain prestige and would likely need some math going into them.

3.) Missions should force a randomized set of gear onto players that are escorting.
This is seen as possible during the sprite missions. The gear given would vary quite a bit, but would be at the appropriate star level, so as to provide a challenge for the player helping. Different missions would have different sets of gear provided; i.e. you wouldn't be given flourish to fight the jelly king. The gear chosen would also be determined by the difficulty level selected- normal = 2x trinkets + 4x weapons, and elite = 2x weapons + no trinkets, for instance.

What this hopes to accomplish...

If this were to be implemented, newer knights would find companionship quite frequently from knights that are hoping to gain prestige by playing alongside them. This in turn fuels the older knights' desire to play the game, as there is more to do, and more to interact with. Because newer players are regularly interacting with older players, guilds would be fueled as well. The end result ought to be more players sticking around.