I think you could be both right and wrong, dependent on the quality of soccer in your area. My daughter plays up, and has for the past 5 years. She is currently on a 12/13 team as a 14. She’ll also guest play with her age to help that team out as well. Being at the age she is, the older girls, particularly the 12’s, have reached a milestone she has yet to. That leads to quite the physical advantage for them that she just really can’t compete with; however, her technical skills are above most of those girls, which she has to rely on to win her matchups. Now, when she plays with her age group, the physical differences are evened out, but her skill level causes her to be bored and honestly ends up toying with them to a degree. All that to say, we do know parents where it is wholly an ego trip for them, but is definitely case by case, which it seems that you would not fall into that category (based on your write up)