in the more competitive youth sports leagues?

I'm not talking about your local rec center/YMCA league but rather the more comeptitive leagues where there are tryouts, extensive practices, expensive equipment, significant travel, etc. Leagues that dominate families' evening and weekend times, especially when the family has multiple kids involved and even more especially when each kid is involved in different sports throughout the year.

I'm not trying to be critical or judgmental here. It's none of my business how other families choose to spend their time and resources. To each their own.

Moreover, I recognize that, as a sports fan, I am, in some respects, a beneficiary of parents like this (e.g., if no LDS parents were like this, BYU sports would arguably not be as competitive).

But 95+% of the time, the kid is never going to be good enough to get a scholarship at even a lower division collegiate level, let alone the D1 level. And only a small fraction of college athletes end up playing their sport professionally.

The cost/benefit just doesn't add up to me unless the kid is just exceptionally talented and/or really loves playing the sport (and while I've seen kids that meet at least one of these conditions, I've seen far more that meet neither).

Is it about vicarously living through your kid? Keeping up with the Joneses? Keeping your kids busy? Wanting your kid to be popular at school? Wanting to prepare your kid for life's competitiveness? Familiarity bias about your kid's ability?

It can't be just learning the basics of a sport, getting some physical excercise, learning teamwork, etc., because the kid could get that by playing in a less competitive league.