I would like to have users sign up for my app with email address, and be given a coinbase wallet with as little friction as possible.
I would then like to send them some coins to get them started.
Is this even possible?
You could do this easily with send money endpoint. If you send funds to an email which isn't signed up, the email address will receive an email notifying to sign up to redeem funds. If the funds haven't been redeemed (i.e. user signed up) in 30 days, the funds will be returned to sender's Coinbase account.