As a new player, who's played Evolution with other new players, the one thing I find people conceptualize the least effectively is when to spawn new species. Most players, myself included felt really weird about doing other species cards, something didn't sit right, we all wanted to manage our one species the best we could.

The other thing that really needs to be pitched is "This is an accurate depiction of evolution in that it's whoever changes and adapts the best will win." It's not about any one stat, it's about constantly being flexible. In that, I feel that new players are always going to have a disadvantage since experience players know what traits go will with what board states and what will most likely be good later. "Oh we're early game so use anti predator traits, but I can see that the 3 predators will run out of things to eat in X turns, so I should hold off on this trait until after that happens". These things are just something new players will never know until they've played a few games.

As much as I like Evolution and want to play it lots of times to see all the variations and unfolding stories, it's just not a new player friendly game no matter how you explain it. Good luck though.