Steemit Account Not Approved? Why is the problem and what might be the solution?

I have suggested few of my friends to join Steemit. One of them signed up using his mobile number and email id about a week ago. But it seems that the account is not activated till now.

I did some research over the internet and found out that it takes almost $20-$30 to create a steemit account and they do it by reviewing manually. But why does it take $20-$30 to create steemit account and why Steemit gives this amount of money for just for opening account?

When I first opened my account, I saw that they delegated me approximately 27 steem power to my account and I think this is why they need manual verification just to verify nobody spam this community.

But my point is, why to delegate 27 steem power just to open an account? If someone opens an account just to make a comment or just to test the community then they shouldn't just get free SP.

In my opinion, system should be like if someone makes 5-10 quality posts and if community member thinks they are enhancing the community then and after only then they should get some free SP. Otherwise there will be a lot of spamming around and nobody will never be able to control this. And I see there are thousands of account who never posted anything and never done anything and in there account there's free SP.

I think this system should be changed otherwise some really interested people will not come onboard because of the verification time is too long to lose interest in it.

I may not be right on this point but right me if I am wrong or I'm missing some point. Happy Steeming guys :)