This sounds pretty accurate, but the real question is does it work? Are you only explaining the system or also endorsing it?
Isn't this limited vision/mission the reason we can't compete at the national level? Any idea how US soccer and the MLS teams define elite youth talent? Is there a unified understanding of what they are looking for in players that the DA clubs are adhering to when they make up their DA teams each year? And what about all the other potential "elite talent" that aren't playing in a DA league? And what is the incentive to clubs to move their top players to the MLS academies?
Now you are opening a bag of worms with complexities that most Americans refuse to accept (including US Soccer and the MLS), but here it goes:
1) The Development Academy league works very well at identifying very talented American youth players (12-15/16). The reason we can't compete at the national/international level has nothing to do with our early youth development system (DA/ECNL/NPL/ODP/SUPER-Y), rather, everything do with what happens after age 15 or age 16 and especially 17-20. Let me try to give you an analogy:
Let's pretend these leagues were colleges and judged on Academics of their graduates:
- England (Premiere League) ---> Harvard
- Germany (Bundesliga) ---> Yale
- France (Ligue 1) ---> MIT
- Italy (Serie A) ---> Stanford
- Spain (La Liga) ---> Columbia
- Brazil (Serie A) ---> Princeton
- Mexico (Liga MX) --->Tufts
- [Rest of Europe] ---> Pick a UC School
- [Rest of Latin America] ---> Pick a Cal State School
- MLS ---> Rancho Santiago Community College
- USL ---> Southern Alabama Community College
The US cannot compete against professional International players because our best, and I mean our very best MLS team would be a bottom of the standing 2nd division team, and our worst MLS team would be a bottom of the barrel 3rd division team in virtually every league.
In Europe, the saying goes for most soccer players that "If you have not signed a professional contract by age 16, you are not going to make it." These 15 and 16 year olds are playing and practicing at levels that not even our MLS players see. This is the reason that kids like Pulisic and Sargent high tail it to Europe as soon as they can. If they are lucky they avoid the Article 19 waiting period, and sign with a team by age 16/17, like Pulisic.
Our problem has little to do with the youth system, and everything do to with our professional system. Elite US players stagnate in the US compared to their European counterparts because the level of professional training here (age 16 to 40) is the equivalent of community college. Going back to my academic analogy, we send players holding AA degrees against Harvard MBAs to compete on the International stage.
The good news is that with the recent success of Pulisic, many European clubs are eyeballing US Talent and luring that talent into Europe to receive legitimate professional training. The tide is turning and the DA League helps aggregate that talent for display. The bad news is the MLS realizes it screwed up with RSTP and is getting nothing for talented 18 year olds that are jumping to Europe.
2) The above answers all of your questions, except for the last one. There is no incentive. No training fee compensation, no solidarity payments, no RSTP at all ... nothing, therefore no incentive. For this we blame the players.