Here's the thing: while Perfect Game is not perfect, and the industry is indeed expensive, it is a far better format than what existed 20 years ago. Kids back then from non-Baseball hotbeds were hopelessly behind. Even more disturbing was that, especially in non-Baseball hotbeds, you had to go through an area scout middle man to get recruited or drafted and while not all of those area scouts were corrupt, a whole bunch of them were.
Now, yes it is true in 1997 just like in 1987 and 1927, if you were a slam dunk stud who threw 90+ you were gonna get drafted whether or not you wanted to kiss the scout's you know what or pay him off or promise a piece of your signing bonus (yes that kinda thing happened, I was there, saw it plenty and more). But if you were a mid-major D1 prospect or a potential 11th Round pick, you had to play ball with the middle man or get left behind.
Perfect Game eliminated the middle man. If you throw 93 or can run 6.7 you can show up, prove it and use your PG profile to contact colleges yourself. That is completely different than the way it used to be.
"Perfect Game" and the models that sprung up around it (PBR, Area Codes, Etc) are far far better than what existed before.
my Kid has his strengths and weaknesses. He has a lot he needs to improve on. But I feel confident that by doing PG, PBR, and travel ball he has a much better chance of winding up where he deserves than if it was 1995 and I had to hope and role the dice that the one middle man dude that I had to pay off actually liked him or didn't hate me or had some other rich guy or five who paid him off more.
if there are mistakes with DiamondKast, they'll correct them. In 1993 if the middle man in Wisconsin or Idaho or Wyoming didn't like you for whatever reason you were mostly you know what out of luck.
I think it is good to push people and companies to do better, but let's have some perspective here please... Things are much better than they used to be....