Moosecheese, while I might have overstated the comparison, my perspective on the NLI is much different than yours, but I come at this with a son who did not sign one and had a great college career on and off the field. Where I think we see the NLI through a very different lenses is whether the NLI being a seminal event is a fact or question. One aspect I have learned about playing beyond HS is that once a player steps onto a college baseball field, no one cares who signed an NLI or didn't and what anyone did before means nothing in terms of who plays tomorrow.
On our local baseball board, a HS coach who is probably with the very top coaches in the United States commented on the recruiting process,the NLI, the publicizing of NLI's and how the NLI and verbal is too often portrayed and viewed for something it is not, in college baseball. Below is a cut and paste of his perspectives. Where I really agree with this coach's perspectives is the NLI not being the destination but rather the "beginning of the pressure to get better."
"A college commitment is the beginning of the pressure to get better, not the destination. Players need to have getting better be their top priority rather than where they are playing in college.There needs to be understood standards that must be met to play college ball... for a baseball player, it(the NLI/scholarship) may have paid for 25% (or less) of ONE year of college with zero assurances for year #2. In fact, year #2 may be nothing or a reduction or being cut. The committed athlete may not even make the roster for the spring after just a fall in college. 75% of the frosh play less than 25% of the innings for a division one team. That is published data. So lauding the commitment, that is shaky to begin with, really feeds this problem."
To me, the NLI being something truly important or a seminal time might have a place in college baseball at D1 and D2, especially if others follow the Pac12 and college baseball scholarships become 4 years, not one(or less in too many situations.)
I fully get why many who have son's signing them today are celebrating the NLI and their son. Placed in the context of a 4 year scholarship, and an NLI being an opportunity for the future involving incredibly hard work, determination and the "demand" to get better, I think the NLI can be important, Placed in the context of celebrating at school, getting publicity or being a seminal event, such as we see on ESPN with football and basketball, my view is the NLI can be experienced or portrayed as something it really isn't, in terms of the future those hoping to play college baseball. IMO, so long as anyone having a son signing an NLI realizes the risks, the demands and the fact it is the beginning of a journey far more rigorous than most realize,the NLI can be important.
At the D3 level, I do not believe the NLI can or should be recognized or become a reality. The article BLD linked, to my reading, suggests the underpinnings for doing a D3 NLI are for all the wrong reasons.