always headed to D3 or college club

On the boys side in my area, ECNL-RL and really even MLS T2 look to me a lot like old USYS regional leagues and the top of the state leagues when my oldest was doing it ten years ago or so. These kids were always headed to D3 or college club or NAIA or whatever, where whatever is more often nothing at all. Our current cost doesn't seem different from the inflation adjusted cost ten years ago, so I think even if/when it is consolidated, they'll come up with enough different leagues and acronyms to keep parents paying. Nothing to date has stopped it. I've sort of wondered if the large number of D1 spots taken by internationals might hurt the high end, but no evidence for that either.