Been coaching over 22 years and heres my take on the new equipment. In regards to travel and competition, I completely disagree with the "false sense of security" If its legal and your young player is a good hitter and can hit with any bat including a 2 1/4, why wouldn't you use one with a little bigger sweet spot while you can? Trust me the other teams will... Now, I do agree with making adjustments through the years to prepare for the -3 in HS, but you will be be hard pressed to find good travel teams that dont leverage them legally while they can...again, if youre trying compensate for poor technique, thats different and I would not use a large big barrel to compensate for skill....but using a legal bat, nothing wrong at all.
Its similar to the old hackers that say when golfing, you should still hit forged blades irons with a little tiny sweet spot and not use the new technology larger and more forgiving cavity back iron clubs to strike the golf ball and score... or use a tiny CC driver with a lower COR instead of a large max size/max COR driver with higher MOI...same with competitive baseball, if thats the case.. I think using wooden bats to practice etc is great... but to just use wooden bat only or limit yourself in competitive tournaments Unless its a wood bat rourney, which are neat too).. but thats not very bright either in young travel competition tournaments if 2 3/4 big barrel bats are perfectly legal, its physics...
Good Luck