I had two friends growing up who never played organized ball..they were poor and had family issues. They would play ball in the playground with us every day.. baseball and basketball in the summer and basketball in the winter. One kid made the HS basketball team and one made the HS baseball team. They were not stars but contributed on decent teams.
Imagine that happening in 2021?
I don't see that happening in the area I live. Biggest reason being that I can't remember the last time I saw a group of kids playing a game baseball on their own, or even a game of strike out.
A couple other reasons are the population is too big, all the high schools have 2,000 kids and some of them are pushing 3,000 kids. Just too much competition. Also, too many parents with plenty of money to development talent. I consider baseball and softball to be a skill oriented sports, you don't have to be a great athlete to play baseball or softball. Many of the skills can be developed with time and money. Don't get me wrong, the best players are athletic or very athletic in some instances.