Great post, Coach! There's a lot of valuable insight there.
This topic came up in an oblique sort of way recently in a phone conversation with my son. The topic was DI recruiting, and he was making the point that the DI's "can't get them all."
The illustration he used was from his 3 professional seasons. He said, "You know, it's striking how many of my professional peers played at smaller schools, many of which were NAIA, DIII, and DII."
It's obvious that he's got a lot of respect for the quality of players spread throughout those divisions; and, it speaks volumes about the number of fine players there are out there.