I agree with everything you said, but I just want to clarify that I don't expect PRO quality, just put a good faith effort into your job.I don't pretend to be perfect ref, just a parent who decided to start officiating after not been happy with bad officiating and now I am doing it for the past 6 or 7 years. I say, YES, you must appreciate every single ref that shows up for the games. In all my time officiating games I never saw a ref who would come with an intention to ruin someone game. You must be kidding yourself expecting from refs like me or 14-17 years old kids to handle games like PROs. I am not saying we shouldn't be questioned for calls or no calls but we do games as best we can. Again, I am not a professional referee and I am not well trained to handle all those inexcusable behavior coming from parents and coaches. Any team might end up with a ref who is not doing well but nothing can be done during the game to change that except taken the team from the field (never seen that but herd it). After the game coaches/parents/ club officials can report to referee org and expect them to take care of it.
All those refs who come for your games should be thanked before and after the game. Especially those youngsters as without them your teams will have your coaches to officiates the games. And, actually, I think it would be a good idea as they will be silent about their own calls and parents won't question their calls - problem with bad refs is solved
I don't usually hunt down refs to thank them, but I always say thanks to those refs I cross paths with after the game. I usually shoot the shit with the AR if I'm on the right side.
Thanks for reffing.