re: What’s the end goal for parents who put their kids into competitive dance?

Good question. Daughter currently takes 3 dance classes a week (ballet, jazz, tap). She loves it and if we let her she would be on the “competitive team”. I don’t see the point in dragging our family across the south for someone who can’t read yet so that they can dance for 6 minutes a weekend.
The only upside that young is that the better teachers are normally with the “team” classes so that could play dividends down the road.

The end goal is just like any of the travel sports is so that the parents can live through their kids.