First of all what, other than tournaments, are any superior teams playing in? Are you talking about a superior league team? A superior legion team? A superior rec team? Superior/elite teams play in tournaments. It's what they do. If you can't compete to win in tournaments, you are not a superior team IMO.
Secondly, once you get beyond HS, a superior team must have pitching depth to win enough to be contenders. MLB plays almost everyday for 162 games. College teams play 56 games in the spring and if they are good enough, they go to the conference TOURNAMENT, then the NCAA TOURNAMENT. They must have pitching depth to compete.
There is a difference between having a team with a bunch of good ballplayers and a "superior/elite" team. Superior means that you are well above the average team and since this is a TEAM, part of that is having pitching depth. I'm not saying that there are not very good players that are on a team that is not superior. But I am saying that unless that team can compete for a championship, they are not superior - as a team.
One of the things that used to bother me pre-HS in these tournaments was that the tournament organization would hold a qualifying tournament for a bigger one down the road. They would have a Gold, Silver and Bronze bracket. The winners of those three brackets would get a bid to the next tournament. So you would have a team playing in and losing the championship game of the Gold (winners) bracket not get a bid, but the winners of the Silver and Bronze brackets would get a bid. That is just stupid in my book. There would be teams that would lose on purpose in pool play to play in a weaker bracket to get a bid.
I know a bad major leaguer is still a major leaguer but I'm going to compair MLB pitchers to MLB pitchers with my first statement. How many major league teams have 7 or 8 aces on their team. Wouldn't you say even the best major league teams only have two maybe 3 stud pitchers.
I've seen many colleges where their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday starters were phenominal but their weekday starters were ok at best.
I've seen quite a few HS teams win state championships with two or three stud pitchers. Heck my senior year we were the only baseball team in our schools history to make it to the 8 team state tournament and we only had 2 pitchers. Not two stud pitchers two pitchers period.
Superior and inferior are terms of comparison. A state champion would be compaired to the other teams in that teams classification. I believe the top team would be superior.
Honestly unless I'm missing something pre college summer ball is the only time tournaments are played in two days. So again I would say superior tournament team. Everything else including MLB is league ball.
Now your last paragraph I agree completley. Also don't get me wrong I'm not trying to say teams should throw a party for winning a consolation bracket. Just that judging a team based on where the finished in some silly weekend tourney may not be a sound ideas.
By the way now that I'm thinking about it. I wonder if you took 8 MLB playoff teams and had a single elimination tourney in one day who would win?