I don't think we've ever had issues with a new player that wants to learn. Those are by far the most loved players in all of GoIO.
It would be lovely if every new player applied themselves to become amazing players, but the vast majority are simply here to play a game, not devote hours to learning game mechanics.
What I would like, and I think what the OP and others want is a way to give new players a solid foundation on which to start playing the game, delivered in a relatively simple fashion. I wouldn't expect them to be able to watch a five minute video and be masters of chemical spray rotations, pilot tools, buff timing, damage types and shot timing, arming time, etc etc. But to know enough so that when those things start showing up, they're able to pick up on them effectively instead of it being a completely foreign concept.
When people first come into the game, they fail to realize that different parts of the ship are in fact different parts of the ship; and assume the whole ship is a single giant hit box. They don't understand damage types and how those affect different parts of the ship. So they won't time their explosive shots to hit the hull and they'll aim the gat at the balloon and the carronade at the armor. They won't try to snipe out guns with the artemis or field gun. They'll keep the flamethrower fixed on a single part of the ship instead of trying to torch everything.
They don't understand the very basics of chemical spray (which is that it -prevents- fire for a period of time, not good at putting out fires) so they can't understand about chemical spray cycles. They don't understand the difference between repair and rebuild and will start malleting away at the broken armor. They don't understand cooldown times so they'll mallet the balloon with 10 stacks of fire and sit there for the remaining 9 seconds trying to put the fire out, or continuing to hit it until it's fully repaired before running off to the next thing.
I won't even begin to list the things they don't know about piloting, because it's literally everything about piloting (ever seen a new player jump on the helm for a first time and the ship starts going up and down as they blatantly ignore the tool tip on how to operate the throttle?)
So the most basic of basics I feel that new players need to help them get off to a good start and allow them to learn the more advanced techniques on their own is:
Cooldowns
Damage types
Ship components
Some Tool effects
Weapon Basics (long-short range, general ammo effects, damage type)
Teamwork
Teamwork is the most important, but not many people pay attention to it. I don't like seeing players that try to do everything on the ship, from flying to shooting and fixing. Or having all three crew members run to the hull when it breaks, then all of them run to the balloon when that breaks, and no one stays near the hull as your ship continues to take damage. Getting them to realize and appreciate that there are other people on the ship and they need to work together and divide the labor instead of trying to handle everything.