When I watched the Olympics I knew that each of the athletes representing America had all received excellent coaching, the latest training techniques and equipment for years to achieve at the highest level. Do you feel sorry for the youth shotputters, fencers, gymnasts, swimmers, and runners who will never make it that far? How about the BMX competition? Gee I rode a bike too!
Rather than sayig baseball is "ruined" how about "changed" ? Compare it to other youth sports. Basketball has changed because of youth and AAU leagues with big shoe sponsors as well as showcases. S****r and hockey have changed because of travel teams which offer superior play and coaching as well. Young tennis players attend academies and travel with personal coaches and trainers.
There is no doubt that Babe Ruth baseball has suffered as a result of travel ball, and that playing elite baseball is more expensive. Has it created a more efficient 'weeding out" process, or just cut off the chance of many kids to play? Both things seem to be true. Look at Latin American countries. Kids are taken out of school as young teenagers and sent to baseball academies to concentrate on the development of their game. Is that preferable? They clearly do NOT have a philosophy of everyone getting a chance to play as we do here in the United States. Perhaps that is the basis of the initial complaint in this thread.
It seems to me the losers in the process are the Rec league players as well as inner city youth who otherwise would have got a chance to develop their games and/or say they once played with a major leaguer.