Eh...I have sort of mixed feelings about it.
As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with the Pound being the risky place it is. It lets younger users potentially get really lucky and have the pet of their dreams even though they are still learning about the site.
I guess my view of this is influenced by the fact that, on my old account, I had a lot of fun labbing pets to rare (well, fairly rare, I suppose) and "donating" them, so to speak, to newbies in general by putting them in the Pound.
I wouldn't have wanted an older, more experienced, more "responsible" and "mature" user to get those pets. I was pleased that they mostly went to newbie accounts - and yeah, most of those accounts didn't go anywhere, yeah, they probably didn't take care of the pet that well or train it or improve it, and yeah, a lot of the time the users left Neopets.com anyway...but so what? Pets are pixels. Their value lies in the way they entertain others, and so I don't think it was a waste of good pets. In fact, I think it's way, way too hard now to get a "good" pet - takes months, maybe years for some people, and a lot of time spent on Neo.
I don't know...this new rule, plus the trend toward adoption agencies with lengthy rules and applications, just seems to cement a ridiculous sense of elitism in the game, in my opinion.
Well, there's my two cents on the matter. No offense meant to anyone.