The youth camp feature is not entirely novel in GKO. It is partially a replacement for the old, and horridly unfair, academy system which allowed premium managers to acquire additional players from their academies. Now we can only get 7 players from the academy but can build youth camps to acquire those additional players. Of course, no one asked for the development, but some alternative was needed to introduce new players in the game in a fairer way that did not favor only premium managers.
1) Youth camps are much fairer than the old system (in terms of opportunity) and I welcome that. However, it is important to remember that those "long standing managers who are dominating the game" are the same ones which are able to invest the most in youth camps and thereby get the best players. There is actually a big assurance in the youth camp feature: If you invest millions in a nation with hundreds of investors and hundreds of millions invested, and reach one of the top few ranks in the nation, you will get a youth prodigy. In Spain and Argentina, two of the most heavily invested-in nations for youth camps, of the 4 biggest investors in each (all of whom received LA8 or better players in both rounds) all but one have club ratings over 6,000, very good or better academies, and currently reside in the top half of their nation's top level league. Sadly this GKO youth camp system relates considerably to real life football management. Here in the States, there are several youth camps/development centers in my area that are sponsored by (mainly English) clubs. Not surprisingly, all of them are sponsored by Premier League clubs. Most are sponsored by the biggest and wealthiest clubs, especially Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and, increasingly, Man City. Similarly, the biggest investors in GKO youth camps are the biggest and wealthiest GKO clubs.
2) To be clear: I have no problem with the general allocation of player quality from the youth camps that many have complained about except that I sympathize with managers who are unable to rid their teams of unwanted youth camps and the low quality players their small investments provide. I don't think any of my suggestions would reduce the role of youth camps as an anti-inflationary device. In fact, I think some of them may actually encourage youth camp investment since they would make these investments more attractive without providing any real assurances. The fact of the matter is, the existing system seems likely to discourage investment the moment a "delete camp" option is supplied, as many teams will pack up some or all of their camps for good and redirect their funds to facility investment and the transfer market.
As a result, it is primarily older and stronger clubs that can afford the huge investment necessary to get those LA9-11 players, not noobs. As a result, like you, many (probably even a majority of) managers want to either quit, or heavily downsize their investment in, the youth camp game. The fewer camps there are, the less money will be absorbed by youth camps, and the less effective this feature will be at reducing inflation. Unless the developers make this option more attractive to everyone, I think it will undermine its purpose. Instead, youth camps will only serve to provide the biggest and wealthiest clubs a new way to acquire the best players and, ultimately, retain their dominance in the game.
What is needed to address these issues, more than anything I think, are a handful of LA8+ players that find their way to lower-ranked clubs at random. Not many, but maybe ~1% of clubs regardless of nation or investment. That way at least a small handful of these teams get a VERY pleasant surprise from their youth camps, providing a big (if risky) incentive to invest in them without feeling the need to be in one of the most heavily invested-in nations and the need to compete with the top 1/2 of 1 percent of investors in them, who will surely be only the biggest and wealthiest clubs in GKO.
