Not in my opinion, no. But then again I have the benefit of watching this philosophy at work every single day of every single season. I get to see it at work in my own household. In your example McLovin, you said you would encourage your child to work the certain skill set that would be needed for your particular child to make a particular team. How does the average parent guage that sort of thing? I'm not a coach so I have no knowledge of this but, if someone asks you what specific tumbling set and "flyer" postitions you'll need on your Youth 4/5 team in 4 or 5 years can you really tell them that? How could you know?
If I were to say ok my little bit wants to make dream team at 16. She's 12. What will you specifically NEED on that team that year for her to make her dream a reality.
And if you agree with the Jack of all trades, master of none, why are you letting your little one crossover?
Let me answer the last question first -- I let her crossover because at OUR gym, there's only 1 goal -- Jr. Black then Sr. Coed. There's 1 level 5 junior team and 1 level 5 senior team. So it doesn't matter if you are GREAT at any of those things really. If you have a triple toe back and a full (for the most part) you will make those teams. They don't hand pick for those teams. You make it mostly for your tumbling alone. At a larger gym, and I used CEA specifically because I quoted your post, when there is one team your child dreams of being on, not just "any level 5 team in general" but "I want to be on Sr. Elite some day", I think you need to figure out what your child is BEST at, whether it be flying, back spotting, basing, whatever, and do whatever it takes to make them SO good at that position that when it comes time to fill that specific position on Sr. Elite, your child will be one of the athletes considered for the spot. If your CP is good at everything but not GREAT at anything, does that give her a greater or smaller chance of making her dream team?? Let's use 2 athletes:
Athlete 1 -- AMAZING Main Base, can keep anyone in the air, catches on to new techniques very quickly, etc. etc.
Athlete 2 -- Good at main base, good at back spot, good at flying, good at secondary but not GREAT at any of them
If I am a coach and I am in need of a BEAST main base, I am going with Athlete 1. Who cares if Athlete 2 is good at the other positions, too. I don't need someone for the other positions.
I could be wrong, but something tells me that teams like Sr. Elite, Rays Orange, CA Panthers, F5, Stars, etc. etc. I think they hand pick the kids to be on those teams. When you have over 100 level 5 kids to choose from, you are looking for SPECIFIC spots to be filled when kids age off. Is it a flyer, main base, back spot? THOSE teams I believe are hand picked for what the team needs for the new season. With stunting becoming so important these days, you need specialists, not a jack of all trades kind of athlete. Again, I don't coach at a gym that size so I'm just speculating, but you would be hard pressed to convince me otherwise. :)