I'm good with tournament travel and even league travel within SoCal. Out of state league travel on top of tournament travel is over the top. Our family also likes to travel for non sports reasons and time is a limited resource.It's over the top with all the different leagues. The creation of new leagues the last few years has been insane. My hope is that we will see some consolidation of gaming circuits as clubs realize this is unmanageable...but I'm not holding my breath. The flip side is you have choice and you can choose to travel or not. For our family, we have great memories of the road trips we have taken whether for soccer or BMX racing. Do we remember the games or the races, rarely, but we remember the good times on the road, seeing new places and hanging out with teammates and their parents.
When adults are involved its rarely about the youth, just like public schools controlled by teachers's unions and the politicians that have put a disproportionate burden on our children during Covid. It's awesome when you find an organization that truly puts kids first.
The problem is, there aren't too many options if you have a competitive kid that likes high level training and play. But we may end up opting out anyway.