Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
It used to. In 5e the modifiers don't mean nearly as much as they did in prior editions.Rolling stats does do that.
And for the beginners, it should start at 1. They haven't been trained that way.D&D trained me to start at any number. 1, 3, -4, 8, 0. All starting places.
As the default, yes.But again. No one is taking level 1 away from you. You can still start there.
So I'm not sure why this is even a discussion. Level 1 isn't going away as the default in our lifetimes, unless D&D itself goes away. You should be pushing to get the things you want to be included as optional rules. At least you have a chance of accomplishing that.