I recommend reverting to the older isk payout method. Or simply increasing the payout for lower level finishing positions. My reasoning follows:

The game used to have much better payout for isk. Since the new year the amounts paid out for kill board position below ~5 place have dropped dramatically.

The effect on the game overall is negative and it is worse for the new player experience as new berries have more trouble making money. More cash is rewarded for destruction of equipment (tanks, etc) and infrastructure (turrets) than just killing reds. Which is fine.

However, losing money for almost every match just makes it difficult, if not impossible, to buy skill books. Isk cannot be purchased, it is only rewarded in battle. While there might have been a good reason to limit isk payout the reality is the game is dying and the original reasons are invalid today.

I believe the reason was the large amounts of isk in game (which was the fault of CCP mishandling of rewards and PC) was the reason to lower the amounts. However, the problem isn't those with millions of isk on hand (my total is in the tens of millions - no I will not share it) but those with well under a million. A multi million isk skill book means it is impossible to skill into a higher skill because it is nearly impossible to gather the funds.

Aurum is available to those that don't have the time or the skill to move forward quickly. However there is no other way to acquire isk beyond game play. This is forcing new players to grind cheaply, to eek out a profit and to play conservatively when the game is much more entertaining doing exactly the opposite.

If you really want the game to be enjoyed versus endured increase the rewards to lower finishing positions.