I like the idea of getting rid of the "invite a friend" option as this is the feature that is most abusable in start-up to set up push accounts around you. (Not you using that feature, but getting a tribunate or friend to invite a lot of people around you is a general strategy for start-up pushing. I don't like the idea of disabling the chose your direction feature though. Playing with friends and in their tribes is basically the only reason that I'm still around playing worlds, and if I was no longer able to do so via not choosing my starting direction then I would probably stop playing, and I'm sure a decent amount of others would feel the same. Like it or not, those "premade" tribes are what keep a lot of the experienced community around, and are also the best opportunity for new players to learn the game from experienced ones.
The idea of banning co-playing seems stupid tbh and just another way for TW to continue killing off its community as it tries to help newer players without addressing the real issues and instead implementing new "features" that while might have been designed for the new player, ends up just being abusable by the experienced player. Making the experienced player even more "un-rimmable" to the newer/less experienced players than before. Making it so that even more so it just the same couple "teams" of players making the endgames and winning worlds. Trying to "level" the playing field with new features is never going to work, until you drive out all the experienced players with them perhaps. As the main "skill" gap in TW is either a knowledge gap or a "connections" gap, neither of which is bridged by new in game features that have been recently rolled out. The main skill gap here is the lack of knowledge of general in game tactics, such as sniping, cancel sniping, back times, anti-snipes, etc. But it is also that vast amount of scripts that experienced players have either made or collected and used over time that they have at their disposal compared to new players who likely don't even know that most of these scripts exist. The connections gap is simple. Its the difference between someone who is staring a world normally vs the experienced players staring in "premade" tribes full of people who are equally experienced and skilled in the game. Its also the gap between how experienced players have lots of people they can ask to "co" their account, or account sit them when going offline, that newer players don't have because they are new to the game. Both of these "gaps" are only really closed by creating a mixing of experienced players and new players, so that they can be shown and taught by experienced players and welcomed into experienced players tribes/circles and start creating their own tw network.
The example given above of a new player building up his village only to get it taken from him by a co-played account isn't the issue. The game is tribal wars, you're meant to be nobling villages from other people. The problem in that example is that the new player is going to join his next world, without any new tools available to him, and have that same process happen to him all over again. If the new player isn't given the chance to learn in game mechanics, new scripts, and meet experienced players. Then they will be doomed to keep getting their villages taken from them as the game is designed until they grow tired of it and quit.
Co-playing is both a method for new players to meet and interact with experienced players, and learn the mechanics of the game. And not just start-up mechanics, but mid and perhaps end game mechanics as well. It also gives new players a much better chance of being allowed in "premade" tribes with experienced players so that they can grow their tw connections, and perhaps be the player looking for cos next world if they would prefer being the main account player. (A lot of people do prefer just being cos and having less responsibility). It also provides a way for experienced players to further play with and interact with friends that keep them still in the community and lessens the inevitable burden that comes with playing a 24/7 online game.