We, SC, currently have about 30-36 roster spots per age group worth of access to league play outside the various state leagues. Generally, from what I've seen over the last 10 years I'm pretty sure more than 30-36 players per age group in SC are capable of competing at that level.
While I have no doubt there is recruiting by clubs, I know all movement of players is not the necessarily the result of active recruiting. Every year that an "incumbent" R3 team is knocked out of R3, there will be players looking to follow that opportunity. Every year that "incumbent" players are dropped from a R3 roster there will be players looking to find the R3 opportunity elsewhere. (Of course, there is also the impact of mergers on R3 rosters.) It's like musical chairs, and it's not driven by money or recruiting. It's players wanting to play R3 Premier League. Given similar levels of training available throughout the state, the experience gained through participation in R3 is significant, I believe, compared to in-state leagues.
I agree with Shibumi in part that a great deal of what a player brings to the team in terms of skills can (should?) be developed outside the team training sessions. However, I believe training with the team, especially during years of youth soccer, is important with regards to learning fundamental tactics and various systems of play. It's much more efficient from a coaching perspective to work with the team together on combinations or changing from sweeper to flat back in a training environment rather than while the players are under game pressure.
As far as "out-of-towners" repeatedly missing training, Hard Headed is right. You can't lump them all together any more than you can lump all "in-towners" into a group as always attending. Now, forget money and forget development for a moment. If you want to grind some tooth enamel of a girls' soccer team and create conflict, put that team through 2 weeks of training sessions including lots of conditioning and allow a couple of those players not at those sessions to start the next game after.
