Things have changed A LOT since 2020 and Covid. Sounds like it worked out great for your daughter. In our area, Club teams are ALL 5 K ( that was a few years ago, probably higher now) plus tournaments (3-4K at least). So if you want to play club, and most kids going for college play do, then you need to join a club and they all cost the same. Perhaps you were in a lower cost area or also it was several years ago.
Even the D1 schools have formulas for how much they can give to each player. And the school matters. The most sought after give less $ as they have more interest. My close friend whose daughter went through this 5 years ago played D1 and got the max ( it was about 25% of the school tuition). They are high income and didn’t qualify for merit because there isn’t merit at lots of the top schools. For example, the Ivies don’t give merit aid.
Agree that paying a recruiting service seems unwise.