Coming from the perspective as a parent of a D3 soccer player – the kids we know who were recruited to play their sport are the kids who pushed themselves on and off season in terms of skills, cardio, strength. Plenty of talented high school athletes talked about an interest in competing in college, but other priorities took over during high school and they just didn’t put in the work.
From your posts, it sounds like you are interested in soccer for the doors it might open in terms of college admissions, not because you literally cannot imagine a day when you are not playing. As a parent, the advice I would generally give to a high school student is, your ECs should be activities which bring you pleasure, not ones you are doing for the sake of college admissions.
College soccer recruiting at top 20 D1 universities and top 20 D3 LACs (plus Chicago, Brandeis, NYU, Emory which are D3) is tough. Most recruits have been playing Academy throughout high school, playing national recruiting tournaments etc. While there will be those hidden gems who didn’t get on coaches radar through those means, that is probably more of the exception. Once in school, the D1 soccer players we know describe soccer as close to a 40 hour a week commitment in season, then about 20-25 hours out of season, between lifting, film, etc. My D3 kid’s experience is about 25-30 hours a week in season and about 10-15 hours out of season. Those hours only make sense if someone loves what they are doing whereas, in your posts, you sound more excited about your academic interests – which is great, but signals to me that trying to redouble your efforts at soccer in order to improve college outcomes is not the best direction.