Not sure what "bought a pool of kids" means. ?
LAGOC is an organization that has changed names (but had essentially the same continuous top leadership structure) for reasons that will not shock people-- money. They took the Slammers name (for a price) to up their image. Same can be said for the move to LAGOC. Marketing matters in this business. It shouldn't (and it is lame), but it does. Making a rec program makes sense from a business level and also (maybe) has the added benefit of growing players from within. I think it's smart, honestly.
If a player leaves, one club "steals" that player and the other club doesn't "retain" that player. It all depends on perspective.
LAGOC fields >50 SCDSL teams. There are going to be players who come and go when you're that big. So, sure, you can go through 50 teams and find some teams with bad records. In a club this size, there are teams that work out and ones that don't. I think saying they have "retention issues" isn't fair or true. If they really were that bad about retaining players, I doubt they'd be fielding 50+ teams...