100% agree with Prepster and Swampboy. Camps can serve many purposes. Those purposes have to be for the recruits benefit or it is a waste of time and money. Early on (freshmen and sophomore year), my oldest son attended a handful of (not terribly expense and local) camps. He learned a lot about the camp & showcase format, listened to the Head Coaches wisdom & suggestions, and personally connected with some pitching coaches that he stayed in touch with him and would actually play a part in his future recruitment 18 months later. He was learning about the process, and learning about schools and their various academic programs as well as their athletic levels. Camps provided a direction (in a short period of time) that he would eventually pursue.
Fast forward a year later, he was attending top level national showcases and going on many Unofficial Visits to schools he was interested in. There were no camps his junior year. He had offers, but there were a handful of interested academic schools that had not seen him as much as the traditional D1 schools that were following him. The academic schools wanted to see him pitch again with additional coaching eyeballs, presumably to offer him. That is exactly what happened. After not going to a camp for 18 months he was invited to an on-campus prospect camp to get eyes on him and seal the deal. I truly believe if we had not gone to that prospect camp, he would not have been offered...they wanted to know he was genuinely interested in their school. For his recruitment, the camp was either about qualifying the school for his benefit or getting an offer to close the deal.
Just my opinion and experiences....