I'm not sure I understand what it means by "as long as that value is above dust levels".. I don't 100% understand the STEEM ecosystem, votes and rewards are foreign to me, sorry I am so dumb.

When a reward value on a post is below around $0.02, it isn't paid out. It's lost. Dust. You are not dumb, it was too technical and I should reword it.

I wonder if there is some way to code the site to bypass this?

You don't need a starter pack to play on .club. You and all of your friends can play without paying anything. STEEM is sent to your wallet after every battle. That's why we ask for at least a summoner and a monster.

You can find a step-by-step tutorial to get started right here. The cheapest summoner is only $0.08 and the cheapest monster is around $0.02. Your friend can also lease them from someone - maybe you can lease it to him. I haven't tested this but it should work as well.