I’ve looked at the pluses and minuses of taking a very weak ANZAC early. These are my conclusions:
The US fleet, if staged at Hawaii can easily trap your fleet.
ANZAC doesn’t play a major role early on and doesn’t provide much strategic position.
The money just isn’t there to make it worth it.
You’re much better off denying the NO’s to keep Anzac at 10 IPC / round than actually trying to take them out. They do their damage already with planes to reinforce other Allied moves, so theres little point in removing them from the game early.
The same can pretty much be said about Hawaii - leaving Hawaii and/or Anzac as your final VP battle ground - not your first.
Stick with China / Flip / India / DEI control early.