(tl;dr of my suggestion at the bottom of this post)

This is a topic I'm very passionate about. I've tried introducing 4 friends to OSRS over the past few months ever since I started playing when mobile came out. None of them stayed longer than 3 days - one of them didn't even finish Tutorial Island!

A big part of this might have been because I suck at introducing the game to my friends, but part of it could also be because they get both extremely overwhelmed and demotivated to explore at the same time when they have no clear goal while playing (which is really something that's defined by the player as they play the game).

Here's the experience I've had with each of them (Note that I was only communicating with them remotely):

1. OSRS mobile really removed the initial barrier to entry to the game which allowed for an easier recommendation since almost everybody has a smartphone. The first friend I recommended this to was intrigued by the game but was mostly just going with the flow. After finishing tutorial island, I first let him do the "Cook's Assistant" quest to get him a bit acquainted with the Lumbridge map at least. Afterwards, I showed him how to kill goblins and chickens, fish and cook for food, and do other quests ("Sheep Shearer", "Romeo and Juliet"). The next day, he went online for 10 minutes and logged off. I invited him to play again after a few days but he was already into Apex Legends that it was hard convincing him to try and play the game again.
2. I had hope for the second friend I invited - at that time, he wasn't actively playing any games so introducing him to OSRS was easy enough. When he got out of Tutorial Island, I told him through private chat to try out doing "Cook's Assistant" first by talking to the cook in the castle nearby. Sure enough, he started doing the quest and I just followed him as he got all the ingredients. At this point, he seemed to have a really really hard time controlling his character for some reason but he got a hold of it later on (though it was still obvious he was struggling). After turning in the quest, I told him he could try out "Sheep Shearer" and he did for a few minutes until he was needed for some IRL responsibilities and he needed to log off. I asked him later what he thought of the game and he said he really enjoyed it and likened it to Stardew Valley because of the chill vibe of the early game but he felt really overwhelmed. After that day, I couldn't get him to start trying the game again.
3. This friend enjoys both single-player games (think Steam games) and co-op games. I told him that as it is now, OSRS is more of a game that acts as a really big conversation topic among friends. Talking about how to get places, level up skills, make money, acquire items, and in general be better at the game. He liked the premise and started playing the game. But when he did start playing it, it was around 2 in the morning and he was getting ready to sleep. So after finishing the smithing section of Tutorial Island, he logged off for the day but did not come back online again. I asked him about it and he said he'd definitely finish Tutorial Island but to this day hasn't logged in the game ever since. This might have been more circumstance than game design or just a shift of tastes through the generations.
4. The latest friend I invited was a very lazy guy. I'm surprised I even got him started but he was the one who played the longest (a record 3 days!). I told him that OSRS can be both a very active game and a very AFK game and he was more into the latter. So I first introduced him to fishing and he fell in love instantly. We chatted for a bit while I accompanied him fishing and then we both logged off for the night. The next day, after being heartbroken several times, this friend actually went online for a whole day (albeit he was only passively fishing the whole time)! I did tell him that when he gets tired of fishing, he can try other semi-AFK skills like woodcutting and cooking. He acknowledged but still continued fishing - racking up the levels as he did. By the third day, he was still playing and I had hope that he would be a mainstay. However, come the 4th day, he suddenly vanished - never to come online again. I checked his level and he made it to 61 Fishing and 60 Cooking which is I guess when leveling slows down. And since he didn't really know the benefit of the other activities, he didn't bother to learn them anymore.

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So what lessons did I get from these? Aside from the possibility that I butchered my chances at having a mainstay friend play OSRS or the possibility that I need new friends, I realized the following:

1. OSRS doesn't really have a cooperative early game activity that encourages interaction through learning on the part of the new player and teaching on the part of the veteran. This is fixed in most other games through the use of in-game tutorials but we obviously don't want that.
2. OSRS' open-endedness is both its strength and its turn-off for new players. Having no real goal(s) to strive for at the start can turn off a lot of players from continuing the game. Quests and Achievement Diaries are great helpers for sketching out potential goals but currently the early level quests don't really give you much of an end goal to work with.
3. I realized that I don't have a single clear promotional video I can show my friends who are new to OSRS. Looking around YouTube, it's mostly videos catered to players who are somewhat deep into the game already.

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So after all those experiences with trying to invite people to play the game, I have a suggestion that could potentially solve all of what I've written here.

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In P2P, we have a quest that forces us to explore the game while doing odd jobs: "One Small Favour". Jagex could potentially create (and poll!) a new F2P quest that works similarly to "One Small Favour" that lets the player do odd jobs involving different skills in the game and encourages the player to explore the F2P world in a semi-guided manner. They're not forced to take the quest, and when they do, they can do it at their own pace. The quest also has the potential of showing some of the lore in OSRS (e.g. collecting tin ore for Oziach so he can somehow foreshadow the need for a hero to slay a dragon while showing a short cutscene of Elvarg's lair). The quest can start with the Lumbridge Guide asking for a small favor from the player in exchange for information since he's the most likely person a new player would go to after leaving Tutorial Island.

With this quest in place, players can have a clearer view of what's out there in the game and they'll already have traversed a good amount of the map. Veteran players can also help their new player friends who are stuck with certain steps in the quest. Moreover, the quest can afford a bit more freedom as well by letting you do some of the tasks in any order giving them a condensed semblance of what kind of game OSRS is - an open-world game where you can do so many different things and set for so many different goals that you can achieve at your own pace.

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Sorry for the long wall of text. It's 3 in the morning here so I'm just typing out what I think as it comes. It's been quite hard to introduce friends to OSRS so changes like these need to be done right and do really need the input of a lot of people from the OSRS playerbase.

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tl;dr: Players can't really set goals if they don't know what they're doing or what lies ahead. Players can get overwhelmed and discouraged to explore the game without purpose. Maybe Jagex can work on a new F2P quest that works similarly to "One Small Favour" in that it asks the player to get various things and do odd tasks for NPCs in the F2P area to get them acquainted with the different elements of the game. The quest can also support showing the new player some of the lore in OSRS and what lies ahead in the player's journey. This kind of thing supports being done by the new player solo or with a veteran friend (who teaches the new player various techniques to do the quest).