Late to this conversation due to work but just want to add a bit of perspective. I went to Northam Senior High School. My sons ( I have two) went to Hale from year 7, one is still there. When I went to Uni I thought Hale was a bit of a meathead factory based on some of my peers. It took a bit to convince me to send my boys there. That decision was finally based on what suited my boys personalities and abilities. And I rail against bulls#$% like taking a potshot because Porter went there is lazy work at a slow moving target like Hale that people love to knock down. Is it worth the money? No. Is it better than the alternative? Yes.
My oldest has left Hale, plays Amateur colts at a club where some alumni continue on to, admittedly where tats are noticeably not present, as highlighted by my (visiting from the East) brother-in-law, whom is a headmaster and comes from a sports background. My son's footballing experience at Hale was a mixed bag, he was overlooked for higher grades mainly due to a preference for flashy run around the tackler types, whom in my opinion spent the footy like millionaires (i.e. butcher the footy many many times). That is a programme effectively headed by ex-Docker Jason Norrish. But with some fatherly pride I can say my oldest sacrifices so much of his game to do the team thing and play his role in defence (when he would rather be more creative forward), and part of that is his upbringing, and part is his footballing experience. He also plays differently to myself and my brother, whom were different footballers to each other. In short he would be a coaches dream.
My brother coaches junior football at Bassendean, and notices the difference in respect and role responsibility between the areas at a first pass. He was also an AFL scout, and sadly tells the amount of times he put Ballantyne forward to his club each year before Freo finally pulled the trigger. He rarely reviewed PSA football then, always colts and above.
The PSA profile here has grown recently, and there is little doubt that significantly more talent is finding its way to private schools through various means, although ostensibly sporting scholarships are not 'offered'. I think there is a fair bit of creep in this area, and will continue to be, because talent identification programmes are improving, particularly in regional areas.
Personally, I think you still run into issues within the PSA , where entitled, risk-taking, no hand-brake personalities can thrive, AKA the local examples discussed above. Likewise model footballers can always find a way out of less fortunate circumstances. Pandering to stereotypes does no-one any favours, and conveys poor messaging for everyone and particularly the games direction.
But on the whole, draft selections are heading in a very risk-averse direction from what I see, and that will manifest in an over-respresentation of players from certain competitions. Not defending Simpson, but that is where he was headed.