As it applies to my area, it is. Our daughter’s have been through the same set of crises imposed by US Soccer over the past few years. Like you, I have seen players leave our core group to chase something marketed as “better,” and it often seems to have impacted their academics or soccer or both, as compared to the group that remained. My sense is that primary problem is that those that left are spending time in the car that could be spent closer to home either studying or practicing soccer.
If someone has an upper 5% soccer player and lives next to a great DA or ECNL club, then they may not have to make the same choices so a lesser sacrifice is required. For those of us with bottom 95% players that do not live next to a great DA or ECNL club, it may or may not be worth the sacrifice to drive to one. This is important to consider in advance because too often in youth soccer, the sacrifice is made before the true costs are known.
In terms of creating college options, nothing matter more than grades, test scores and recommendations. If a 1530+ was never possible, then it may be that nothing important was sacrificed by the commitment of time and effort to things other than studying. If a 1530+ might have been possible, then... I don’t know.
