I don’t think we’re doing anything out of the ordinary…
Most popular sites seem to lead with log in, some present both but usually only if they have a splash page instead of content… and to the other extreme some don’t even label the account button at all and put both options in a dropdown menu
My personal favorite approach is not differentiating at all, asking for email, then diverging based on account existence… but there are some downsides to ding that.
Before adding it to the menu by default, maybe we can consider making it more prominent on the log in page. A full button rather than the link? something sticky at the bottom so tall pages don’t bury it?