That is why we are seeing organized sports turn into a professional business. Since kids very rarely play outside they put them in organized sports and the stakes are getting higher every year. Parents wants to give their kids everything everybody else is giving and we are seeing this type of "win at all cost" culture come out of this. It will be interesting to see in a few years how many of these kids turn out.
No one here gets it.
Pickup games are non-existent because people are afraid to let their kids play in the neighborhood unsupervised. When my kids want to play with their friends, they go to their house or their friends come to our house. There aren't enough kids to form pickup games.
I have 2 kids in organized sports and will have my 2 other kids play as well when they get old enough. This is the only way for them to play sports today.
As far as the competitiveness goes, some teams are very competitive but others are not. You don't have to play on one of the elite teams that try to challenge for the State or National title. Like anything else, some parents take it too far, others get it about right.