I'm curious as to what competition these dancers say IS the epitome of dance competitions? Assuming these are what I call "studio dancers" who dance on a sprung or marly floor and do a lot of ballet and lyrical - basically the type of dance competing that is shown on Dance Moms. My CP does this type of dance, and I can tell you it is an extremely fragmented and inconsistent competition system - there are a billion different competitions all w/ their own set of 3-5 different "nationals" and it's a crap shoot who else will be at any one of them on any given year. There is nothing that I know of that comes close to being the equivalent of what Worlds is to cheerleading. Nothing - but I'd be curious to hear what they say ;).
It is very rare that a studio dance team would ever attend a USASF dance type of competition - they probably all barely know that whole scene exists (I only know of it cause of cheer), and I'm sure that's why they really don't understand the significance of the Dance Worlds and would say something like that.