I personally don't think it matters much until high school. Zack never has had the chance to play travel ball because honestly we didn't have the time or the money to make the commitment. Do I wish he could have? Only from the amount of games played aspect goes. He had a great rec ball coach-someone who we are very thankful for having in Zack's growing years.
I really think the work ethic of the kid outside of "team" will have a lot more to do with whether or not they make it at the HS level. There are kids on the high school team that always played travel ball that make errors and hit .200 (one of the hit a combined .087 between spring and summer ball). Zack had a rough first week or two with the pitching but ended up about .450 combined and no errors. But he/we practice or do something all the time. We went to the field yesterday and called maybe half a dozen or so kids to see if they wanted to come out-none did-they all had "other plans". Zack looked at me and said "noone on the team really loves baseball like I do".
It was a journey last year-since we didn't play "travel ball" the coaches didn't know us or Zack (we also live outside the school district). So when the season started he was hitting between 7th and 9th and although he started he was generally taken out in the 4th or 5th inning. By the time the year was up he was hitting 3rd-5th and never came out.