I live in Wishaw, went to St Aidans High and once upon a time played for Motherwell Miners in the early 90’s for a few seasons so get what you are saying. I remember we used to get the odd complimentary tickets to go watch Motherwell and was more than happy to go along to watch the matches, Celtic were always my team though so yeah I get I’m part of the problem but all the names you mention are very familiar to me.
Back then though I remember most lads who were scouted were done through playing with the school teams and the old Lanarkshire select sides. Two guys I played with at school were Mark McCormick and Colin Waldie who were both picked up being watched playing for the school, Mark went to Livi and Colin went to Raith Rovers if memory serves. I can only remember a couple of Motherwell fans one of whom was John McCrossan who funnily enough was the linesman at the Celtic v St Johnstone game on Saturday
Whilst there seems to be more opportunity for kids to get spotted now it’s still difficult for kids and parents if I use Motherwell as an example they have an academy setup through Braidhurst High I believe, one of the girls who works for me is from Armadale in West Lothian and has to take her son to school there just so he can continue playing for the Motherwell youth team, hugely talented boy by all accounts but it’s a big commitment and expense for the parents so these things could be made much easier with the regional format you describe in the Netherlands, we could learn a lot from their methods and that’s even before looking at how they play
The claret and amber bunting didn’t bother me in the slightest, it was good to see the community get behind something as it doesn’t happen enough so saddened to hear of the complaints but not unsurprising given what I know about the area.