Potential partial or full fix: in player_base.xml, instead of commenting out the aiming_reticle SpriteComponent, make its alpha "0" or special_scale_{x,y} extremely small values. This might only be a partial fix: while hopefully it would prevent players from being warped to the start, it might always think the player is aiming in the starting direction. I can't find where the aiming_reticle's position is set in .lua files, so it might be derived from the ControlsComponent mAimingVector inside the engine; if this is the case, then this might actually be a full fix, as the mAimingVector is already being set based on the mouse position.

Potential full fix: combine the above with some code in init.lua that also sets the aiming_reticle offset_{x,y} whenever it sets this player's mAimingVector, if it's not already automatically derived from the mAimingVector by the engine / base game / other mod code.