A tournament can be fun for newbies depending on the format. They key is league and tourney formats that encourage direct head to head play vs ones that revolve around single player qualifying.

A tournament that you have to qualify for is not going to be fun for newbies because newbies generally won't qualify.

At the same time, newbies probably aren't going to want to commit to three days of match play either. The key for newbies is smaller scale match play tournaments.

EMs are an acquired taste. I used to find them too random and uncomplex, I was a big fan of ruleset heavy WMS DMD games. It wasn't until having a couple tournaments where I ended up playing on them, and watching some PAPA classics videos that I developed an appreciation for the skill in them.