I gotta disagree here. Humans have always been the easiest creature for a new player to start with, in that there's just that much less to adjust to. And yes, in the older editions Humans were unlimited in advancement; but one hopes that by the time those new players' characters had got to that kind of level they'd have figured the game out some.
Nahhhhh.... Humans never were newbie race of choice. Nor any races for that matter.
I could bet my shirt you've had this at least once in your game in 1ed.
Ok you're new. You should play a... fighter.
Ok. I'll be a dwarf like Gimli!
Ok. Dwarf fighter it will be.
Or a Legolas (fighter with bow), a Boromir (human fighter) or.... you get the picture.
And in OD&D, the choices were quite restrictives. Dwarf? Fighter. Halflings? Fighter (sort of), Elves (M-U/Fighters), and Humans would be the rest, fighter, m-u, thief or cleric. Nothing else. The game complexified itself a bit over the editions, culminating with 3.xed, but we are now at manageable level (kind of).