You are absolutely right, for most small accounts even 1 future is too large and you can't scale in or out.
Over here in Europe you can trade CFD's. These are not allowed for US-citizens I believe.
Usually contracts are for 1 euro per 1 point. No commission, only 2 pt spread.
You could trade the spy, dia or qqqq based on the futures charts (ES, YM or NQ) as an alternative. That works quite well...