I would like to see the dads of preteens who know baseball work to make the rec program better rather than run away from it. It's what we did in our LL. There was some criticism the program was too competitive. It wasn't that the coaches were insane. The quality of ball was good. A few parents took their kids to an independent league they perceived to have less pressure on the players. The reality was the quality of play was poor.
Our league was so much fun and the food so good families hung out at the park on nights they didn't have games. The kids ultimately ended up playing whiffle ball or some other mayhem behind the outfield fence.
We had 11u and 12u travel teams in a AA Sunday DH league running concurrently with the LL. The teams were prospective all stars from our league. Real travel (best players rather than community) started at 13u. No one was behind learning the game.