eh, tempest is pushing it. the wolf is good precisely because it forces you to learn. probably better to learn how to run close combat setups early on, rather than screw up later when the consequences are much higher. sure, beamkite is easy but it doesn't really teach you how to play the game. giving the new player a huge advantage in range and safety early on will probably just transfer the frustration down the line a little.
maybe.
I wanted to avoid going too specifically into starting conditions, but I very recently (less than 2 weeks ago) introduced a friend to SS and watched him learn to play a very strike-focused wolf (heavy blaster, ion, pair of PDs and pair of harpoons.) It took him a while to get into the swing of things with me teaching him, and it did teach him one bad habit - to rely on the phase skimmer. While using a phase skimmer is skill intensive, controlling your momentum, selecting your facing, and knowing how much it'll take for you to redeploy your shield when dodging missiles, it still gives players habits that they can't afford anywhere else. Unless you jump from a wolf straight to the Medusa, at some point, you have to get used not to having a "dodge" button.
Frankly, the default ship having Active Flares or just an omni-shield would build better habits than something as specific as the phase skimmer - with it, you feel much more pressured to learn to use the skimmer itself than watching your facing, shield and PD coverage.
The old days of starting in a Lasher were fine, I think. Once you learned to 1v1 the AI in an equal lasher, you actually had enough of a grasp of flux, venting, missiles and risk-taking to play almost any conventional ship.
Maybe having a starting condition alongside the "extra weapon/improved crew/extra spending money" for an easier setting of "made a close friend" that also adds a friendly ship (maybe a pressure lasher with autocannons and salamanders) and starts with a "cautious" officer.
Still, the main point that I want to argue is that rather than just giving cash to make things easier, you should give them something good straight up. The people who need the help wouldn't actually know what would help them.
On the topic of the "made a close friend" option, another possibility would be actual mercenary officers - you can't give their ships direct orders beyond them joining in a "full retreat," and their death would only damage your ability to get other mercenaries in the future, and they would take part of your salvage, bounties and such, but give you "free support." It's a way of adding a crutch for new players that doesn't depend on them knowing what to do with the crutch, but shouldn't be strong enough to handle things alone. If you start in a wolf and have an ally in a pressure lasher, you NEED to cooperate if you want to say, fight an enemy hound + lasher + cerberus.