Difficulty curve to steep for new AI, and new players online

I'm pretty sure this has been spoken about.. probably a lot, but I haven't been on reddit for a while and wanted to get an update on the current situation with the new AI.

Just to get this out the way I can beat the new AI on hardest, usually by keeping constant pressure on eco with scouts.. and some counter units. So this is not that I can't beat it...

I recently re-introduced a friend to AoE2 and he has just started out for the first time in probably about 15 years! Yes we used to play LAN games when we were about 11-12!

He played standard AI at first and said that he found it way too easy.. like when he got to their base they had absolutely nothing.. just 1 TC and maybe a couple of units, anyway he smashed it.. and he hasn't played in years, and knows nothing of the new meta.. lureing boars.. etc etc.

Then.. he tries moderate, I should have warned him, and maybe said to try hardest on old AI which is still like playing against a new born child. But alas he instantly got bitten by the AoE bug and went in on moderate. He said that he got beaten so bad he said it must be impossible for anyone to beat them! And he got really disheartened and didn't play again for ages.

Also he talked about playing on line coz he loves the idea of that... but sadly the ranking system is strange and a new player game would have to be beaten X amount of times before getting to a realistic level.. once again disheartening them.

I think my friend can see passed it.. but it worries me that new players will just find it all too intimidating with the middle level difficulty online to begin with rather than at the bottom.

With the AI, regardless of how good you are "standard" and "moderate" are way too far apart, this isn't even subjective.. mathematically it is insane. It would be nice if Standard became easy, because easy is pointless.. then there was a slower curve up, except hardest could stay the same.. if not be a little harder.

Sorry I'm ranting.. does anyone know if this is being looked at, or if we should just keep new players frightened from playing online and give up on AoE altogether.