Just another outsiders comment
but doesn't enhancing the noob start locations go against part of the idea of this game?
My understanding is that this game series is between a team of new players against a team of vets, with the noobs obviously hoping to pull off a surprise against their esteemed opponents. But above all else, isn't the idea of this game to help the noobs learn how to compete better in MP games? Either from their own endeavours, or from picking stuff up from the vets. If that is the main aim though, then giving the noobs handouts at the start to compensate their poor expansion technique is defeating the point of the exercise.
Being able to expand well against the Indys is a key part to all MP games, and if you don't learn how to do this properly, then you don't compete in MP games full stop. So IMO there's no point skipping around the issue by plying the noobs with large sacks of gold, since they can't expect to ever have that advantage in any other MP games. So while it may help them in the here and now, it will probably do more harm than good for the noob player overall, since the noobs in question will still keep using bad expansion technique in future games, instead of encouraging them to learn a better technique right now. I think the same also goes for lowering Indy strength.
My two pennies worth, for what it's worth, is that you should keep Indys on at least 5, and the noobs just have to learn to expand better. Since if that is the main problem, then it's best to tackle it head-on rather than trying to compensate for it. And again if my understanding is correct, if the noobs do learn how to expand better because of this game, then it can already be considered a success regardless of the end result