athleticism, and that in general the type of athleticism referenced in typical American sports isn't as important in soccer is still valid.

It's just that when the difference in physical abilities between men and post adolescent boys are that disparate, it does matter a lot.

I've known about the USWNT/boys scrimmage results for a long time. 15 years ago Bruce Arena brought up that the USWNT lost to U-16 boys in response to the question of whether the USWNT could beat his USMNT. And I then asked some referees I did games with who had refereed some of those scrimmages, and they said "yep, the boys just blow right past them".

So no, we are not suffering because Lebron James or Odell Beckham Jr. didn't choose soccer and Christian Pulisic did.