I totally understand Lego not putting any marketing power in that direction and pushing so hard for more branding and licensed sets.
The other end of the spectrum is their educational sets, but then we're really into the multi hundreds of dollars sets.
Most of these sets are sub-$50, so relatively affordable.
The promotional photos even echo that long-ago Lego ad the author laments as a bygone era, with a little girl building a house with no instructions (albeit the modern version is perhaps unrealistically restrained for something a kindergartner supposedly came up with).
Second hand buckets are around $10 if you buy from a store, and way less if you get them at a flee market or from families who don't use them anymore.
Sounds hippy and extreme, but I anecdotely know around ~20 people who went that route to start or grow their collection, and that's the advice I'd give people if asked. Lego seems to be the only toy people don't mind just getting second hand, machine wash in a net and start playing.
Bucket will stay in store as the anchoring price, and also to avoid having non Lego brand take that shell space, but I don't remember seing any marketing effort from Lego to push them in the last 10 or 20 years.
Lego has embraced the adult collector as a valuable customer. But that does not mean they have abandoned the children who just want to play with some Lego.