I approach this "problem" from the opposite end. You're right: it's not fair, it's not optimal.

But how would you do it? How do you dole out a new currency to people in a fair manner, but also in a decentralized way that's not subject to gaming or influence by any third party?

That, I think, is the key to understanding Bitcoin's idiocy. Things about it's design that seem stupid? They're not that way because it seemed like a good idea to some coked-out libertarian (as much as other coked-out libertarians will insist otherwise), it's that way because there's simply no better way of doing it.