"Were they ever going to stay long term ?" is a really bad way of thinking. This suggestion is heavily focused on balancing the current "meta" of the server, which is controlled by the core members of RPUK (Players that have been around for a long time). Introducing a mechanic that makes it harder for newer players, but "balancing" the current players, is not a good idea in my opinion. The new player experience on the server is already pretty bad. They are discriminated as "baldies", even if they could be promising roleplayers. Being completely new to roleplay, asking a question ooc they will be bombarded with "Find out in RP", which to someone who doesnt even know what that means, will just confuse them further. When trying to ask other players in game, they are either ignored or treated badly because of the fact that they are "baldies". Its honestly luck like 50/50 if you spawn in and enjoy the server or not, if you find someone helpful enough to guide you through Roleplaying. I'd rather see more suggestions that can help the new player experience more so than balancing current metas because eventually if we get more and more new players that enjoy the server from the start, the server would be booming and populated a lot more than currently, and the meta can naturally (or more easier) get balanced because the community wont only consist of veteran roleplayers who absolutely dominate the server atm.
If RPUK was a whitelisted server, I would agree that something like this might be a good idea as everyone would be checked beforehand as a "decent roleplayer" to play on the server. However, RPUK is fun and enjoyable for everyone here mainly because it’s very accessible, you can log in whenever you want, become whoever you want and do whatever you want (within server rules). Making it difficult/ tedious from the start is not the move. I would argue that right now, the fact that it’s so easy to steal a local car is very good for new players. We can class it as a basic crime that anyone can do, which is good because hey, i've done my first crime RP on the server which is stealing a car. Everything else like robbing a shop, robbing a bank, kidnapping someone etc needs a lot of steps beforehand like finding out the right tools or weapons etc. Police can easily pull these people over because they did a crime by stealing a car that they dont own, and thus they get to experience police RP. If you now need to have a lockpick to also hotwire cars and what not, then what can you do as someone who is new to the server? Not everyone wants to immediately go taxi or trucking, make money and progress legally first before doing crime. Some people just want to get straight into crime RP, and the easiest way really is stealing a car.