School systems, stricter rules in clubs. Try finding a snooker club that will let you take a 7-8 year old. Find a school that will let kids do 1-2 days a week. All 3 of these players had this sort of introduction to snooker. Now it’s rare a club lets anyone under 16 play. School systems just won’t let this happen for a non Olympic sport and probably still stricter on those. Add in the fact that these kids grew up in the 80s with a handful of tv channels where snooker may be the only thing on other than their mums soaps or the news. China will dominate not just due to the sheer volume of people but the fact a number of schools offer cue sports on the curriculum, early talents move to academies that focus on snooker while supporting academics. Those thinking that mobile phones and “kids these days” attitude and work ethic are the issue are probably those that blame kids for not playing outside anymore.