Totally agree with this, fwiw. At least on the boys' side, it doesn't seem like there's much differentiation at all, and there are not enough truly advanced players to really support much above just the normal SoCal flights.
Case in point: when my son's club became eligible for NPL, the top 2011 boys team became NPL, and the F2 team moved up to F1. There was no perceptible change in skill level for either team; they just "shifted up" because that's how all the teams were shifting at that age. They could have just as easily stayed F1/F2 without introducing NPL, and achieved the same level of competition for both teams in the league; the whole introduction of the NPL tier seemed like just something to make parents feel better about their kids' progress.
Above list is missing EA/EA2 (and probably others). Many EA teams are strictly worse than SoCal F1 I didn’t include the full compliment of boys leagues. I happen to coach girls, but this so very true. You could cut most of these leagues, stay in flt 1-2-3–4 and have quality and consistency in competition without travel costs. The entire thing is so diluted.
