Agree on some of your points but disagree that these recruiting services are worthless.
If you understand that these companies, just like club soccer, are businesses and need to make money then you will have a better understanding of what to expect. Be smart, use their FREE services to your advantage. We did this for our DD and it paid off.
You can't lump all the recruiting companies together. My sister and her husband back East were both involved with a recruitment company (not soccer) and were very picky with whom they signed up. They only did this for about a year because it demanded a lot of their time.