It seems like the safest spots would currently be those of teams 4 and 11 with three neighbours. Second best would be 1,7,8 and 14 with four neighbours and third best 2,3,5,6,9,10,11 and 13 with five. Everybody else gets seven or eight neighbours with those more towards the center getting 8 and having to face higher skilled players right off the bat.
So yeah, current distribution would need changing a bit (specifically the corners) if lower Elo is to give one a better/safer starting position.
Also, how would you solve the issue of getting people into the right teams/right starting positions?