I'm seeing this way late, but that's a great development and I'll surely use it when trying to get friends onto the platform! Having a bit of value already in an account that was gifted will probably do wonders on making sure new members remain active as well.
I do think this should be a feature directly implemented into steemit.com, to make it easier to find and use.
RE: Would you buy a Steem account for a friend with Steem or SBD?