AYSO is telling families, "If your kid is Rec Level Good, then (s)he should be playing Club. And, hey, we have that now."
They should be doing the opposite: "If your kid is Rec Level Good, then get them off that Flight 3 team, get them out of Club, and have them play in AYSO."
Yes, but in fairness to them they aren't just marketing United to Rec players....they are marketing it to club parents as well and having some apparent success. Also because United can recruit from a very large talent pool (club/Extras/allstars/core), some teams are having quite a bit of success, though I take the point it will be difficult for many teams to break into the highest levels given how they are structured.
If we were seriously about restructuring AYSO a few things would have to happen, and the parties are too invested too realistically have it occur:
1. AYSO would have to fully submit to the US Soccer umbrella. They haven't wanted to do that, preferring to keep their own philosophy and leadership structure.
2. Pay or play would have to be outlawed and there would be no club soccer outside of fully funded academy programs. As a result there would probably be fewer of them than there already are DA teams in the U.S.
3. AYSO would then be free to reorg into various levels. Other than the basic 1 level, teams would sort based on coach selection and recruitment. Naturally, the better coaches would sort into the higher level teams....compensation would be minimal, but increasing as you move up in level....the incentive for the coaches in addition would be bragging rights for their levels. Of course, level 1 would still be the old AYSO parents that never played soccer (at least til the next generation grows up). All Stars/United/Extras also go away. You couldn't recruit outside your region (with progressively higher levels having bigger regions). At a certain level, you couldn't recruit your own kid. The existing AYSO region chapter autonomy would go away as well. Everyone would have some sort of service requirement placed on them to play, sort of like now for AYSO but more restrictive and severe.
4. The everyone plays, no competition purists would need to cave. Part of the motivation of the coaches to do this is personal glory....to win. The possessionists also wouldn't be happy....you'd see a lot of kick ball, particularly in the early ages.
In other words, we'd get the current English system: volunteer based with minimal compensation, very restricted and limited academy system, graduated tiers, lot's of kickball (perhaps more than we even have now) at the younger ages. But it would solve the income problem (too much talent too poor or unable to travel to afford club), the participation issue (there are enough levels for everyone, depending on their level of commitment), the randomized problem (that AYSO is like a box of chocolates...you never know what coach you are going to get, unless it's you) and the high school problem (outside of the academies, largely funded by the MLS, recruitment would have to fall back on high school). It would maintain a professional track (the academies) as well as allow room for late bloomers to advance up the level chain and be spotted by professional clubs. The ones who would be unhappy of course would be the paid coaches and parents hoping to develop their kids for college athletics...in other words most of us on this board.