In regards to North America (I know -- this is a thread about Europe)
I think not a lot of people from the Main+ levels tuned into the North American Newbie Cup that happened last weekend. If you were there for some of the interviews and the channel we had ~24 teams (so over 100+ newbies participating in the cup) and some of the teams are even sticking together to play in the Newcomer/Amateur division heading into next season. You can talk about the lower levels of NA but if you're ignorant to what is going on at the lower level scene and throw words about how participation is lower, you'll clearly be overlooking the efforts players in this scene (shoutout to M17, Jamilia, heck, shelzor, and the rest from Newbie Mixes/TF2CC btw) have been trying to spearhead for seasons on end to try to revitalize the scene. They were actively advertising this everywhere but TFTV (Reddit, even getting posted on the TF2 game website). I saw first hand how much work they put in and it did not go in vain.
Start ahead. You can talk but if you don't contribute to the cultivation of the lower levels of our scene nothing will amount to it. We have Newbie Mixes, TF2 Coaching Central, and many people who want to build grassroots projects to help get people into competitive TF2. But there's practices such as 10:30 PM EST match start times that gatekeep people from playing past the Amateur level in our scene.
I am all for implementing the Unity/ETF2L timer ruleset for Newcomer/Amateur. Would make more sense for games to end quicker. The TF2CC cup implemented it and it worked wonders for everyone involved, not just the players.
We're doing a good job here in NA, we have TFTV coming back for coverage next season and this might just be the most exciting time for North America with everything that is going on right now. I'm really hopeful for the future of this scene.