Higher income families generally (but not always) at about 50% of the non-MLS MLS Next and most of the ECNL clubs while lower incomes is more at CSL. Level of soccer is same but family's ability to provide academic support (eg, tutoring, SAT course etc) is different.
I'm an academic type whose kid grew up playing on-so many-IE teams. Your post highlights key dichotomies that resonate. MLS Next, ECNL branded clubs I think of either access soccer or kids/parents getting thinking they got IDed and can catch a ride. USYS clubs, it's more like community-oriented teams. Resources, access to good coaching, vary widely, but its generally wholesome stuff. For the National tournament format it is interesting that at the B04 age group it is Riverside and Apple Valley teams going forward to Regionals. Then if you look at the Facebook pages and Sports Engine posts you find "go fund me's" and "thanks to a benefactor" to make it happen. We drove into the Surf complex for the Man City finals and saw at first saw these immaculate fields with sprinklers going round and round. My son's like "Wow, they water the fields". Note-those aren't the fields you get to play on.
Here's two stories, not data points, not indicative of the larger picture per se, just stories coming to the end of the whole youth soccer saga, perhaps illustrative of what you are talking about. First story, we play LAFC as some kind of orchestrated pick up game. They give us an extra pop-up (nice). They have yet a third pop up in addition to the second one for their players with a table and coach-looking kind of guys wearing latex gloves working on computers. They brought 4 keepers and played three. They paid for a full Galway Downs ref crew instead of just a center (nice). We go up on them 4-3 in last part of second half (not that that means anything, who knows what sort of roster they were choosing to put on the field, although I don't think they wanted to lose). Anyway, its a hat trick for a little shifty striker we had with a nice outside shot and cool as a cucumber once behind the line. Soon after the game, kid gets contacted by a local USL team. Here's your shot, maybe a contract, here's the dream. Bites on it, plays against older grown out players and damages his knee. Out for 8 months. Second story, holding mid who likes to gets forward and can do some damage, good work ethic, good grades, UC eligible (note that the SAT is going away for UCs), perhaps the type of player attractive to a D1 program. Mom's bummed because the kid thinks they should just go start making money now.
I suppose it has always been like this, at the intersection of adulthood and playing forward in the game. But when you see it happening, you feel it.
