yeah this is all well known.
how do we fix it?
I think there should be ZERO travel teams for U12 or lower. It should start at U14. Promote the heck out of your rec leagues and create a pool of players that then you select from. But it all starts at fundamental development.
Travelling to 12 different cities in 6 different states over the course of 12 weekends isnt going to make your child a better player. Sure, its nice to face different competition, but if your childs team goes out and loses 7-0, what was accomplished/proven that the coach didnt already know after seeing the kids practice/play for last however many weeks/months leading up to the game?
Good friends of ours spent last 2 weekends out of town - FL and Tenn for games. last weekend in Tenn, their child played 8 min. Then 20 min in game 2. They travelled over 400 miles, spent $$$ for travel, room and board, so their child could play 28 min out of 160 ( 2 80 min games played ) ? They always call my wife to ask me what i think and my reply is the same every time...they are insane. Their child loves soccer and is good ( i practiced with him for several sessions when he was 10/11 ) and i have told them that placing him on this team is doing more harm than good. He just wants to play. And the only way to get better is to play. Not 3/4 speed practice, not 20 min of a 80 min game. Just play. He would get more out of a rec league that plays 2x a week intramural than travelling 400 miles to sit the bench for 72 min.
But its what the other kids do. Its what the other "well to do" parents do. So they do it too.
Perception plays a major role in all "travel sports" - especially for parents. And travel sports targets this "perception aspect" well.
Outside of a seismic shift in how Youth Soccer is organized and ran, while Infantino isnt wrong, his words will do little to persuade US Soccer to make massive changes.
So we are left with what we currently have. Sure there will be some decent to quite talented players come out that system, but we most likely will never have that generational talent found, because he/her parents couldnt afford the $2500-3500 sign up fee and the subsequent $10,000 ~ travel expenses over the course of the season.
C'est la vie.