Is travel ball really a problem such as is posted though? I tend to think the problem is worse for rec ball kids. Rec ball produces players that are decent and sometimes even great players. What happens though is that these rec ball kids- the studs on those teams have always batted .500, been in the starting line up, and played the desirable positions. They basically have never really sat in their lives on the bench either. Then when they get to HS and tryout and make the team they are shocked that they barely made the Freshman or JV team and then end up sitting on the bench every inning pretty much for the whole season while little Johnny who was on the travel team gets to play everyday. For the parents this is a shocker and they can't understand why their kid is even on the team if he never gets to play.
From what I have gathered, pretty much every HS team wants to win. They are not really concerned about player development for the reserve players but more concerned for the player development of the everyday players. The best players will always get the playing time plain and simple. Talent has more to do with it than anything else. Work ethic often goes hand in hand with talent. Needless to say, the travel ball kids usually have the better work ethic because they have grown up playing at a higher level of committment than ordinary rec ball. Rec ball for the most part does not breed good habits or work ethics. I used to coach rec ball and finally gave it up altogether because of the general attitude and work ethic of players of that caliber in general. Most of the good players at that level do not want to move up to travel ball because they "shine" at the rec ball level. What it really comes down to is they do not want to improve their work ethic and actually be challenged by travel ball competetiveness and so they do not improve as well as they could have.
When they finally get to HS they find themselves riding the pine most of the season. We all know that travel ball has it's negatives but the positives way outweigh the negatives. Perhaps travel ball is different in other parts of the country but in my neck of the woods if you can't cut it in travel ball you won't play even if you pay.