Faith and Black Magic

[Jumpy]

if you sign your soul away it should stay that way.
faith is much easier than essence to get because it's riskless, the difference here is that there's a bajillion witches instead of the handful covens had in e3.
this is also the reason signing a book gives essence, i discussed it way back when i ended up as the supreme of a coven with only me in it making sabbath impossible to use.
hex is only as cool as the people casting and receiving it.

there's no downside for a new player joining a cult, you're right, but what's crazier is that praying for a new player is not only 'no downsides' but also 'all upsides' and they don't need to run at a spooky tower for you to do it, it can be anyone you find on the street with brown clothes, bright purple hair, a green name and a description that says [BLANK].

i don't think anything would change as far as being coerced into signing goes if you removed the essence gain; people who would change their methods over it would be killing their IC