Could you not inhibit the startup screen? I get wanting to have a "clean" setup but if anyone is using this there is a good chance they don't know emacs all that well already and links to the tutorial are good for them.
(use-package dashboard
:ensure t
:config
(dashboard-setup-startup-hook))
Remember, though, that just like this document describes, a big part of Emacs is not running it repeatedly, but rather starting it just once and keeping it alive basically forever; you're only rarely going to see the startup screen if you're doing orthodox Emacs.
> (setq inhibit-startup-screen t)
> If you are a beginner to Emacs, you might find the startup screen helpful. It contains links to tutorial, manuals, common tasks, etc. If you want to retain the startup screen, comment this line out.