It was the same for me. There are many ways to do this without annoying those that are not newbies. The could detect who is a newbie and then display a pop up or message in the header that explains this policy
This is exactly what happens. You sign up and right away it details the exact restrictions you're under and how you can lift them.
Of course it's easier to press the "LOLDIDNTREAD" button and then complain that the system should behave in a certain way while it behaves in exactly that way.