Are competitions and awards important ?
Take a look at the lists of all Ireland championship winners in any instrument you like, or the Northumbrian pipers championship lists, or the Highland piping competition lists.
Agreed, nothing’s more important than getting youngsters to play - and youngsters love competing, awards prizes, medals, badges. Any schoolteacher will tell you that.
One of the great things about the competitions is that they have novice/beginner categories and do encourage cooperation too, as well as a love of the music. The people who organise these things don’t do it for the money, agreed a lot of the media may have different and more selfish reasons but that doesn’t mean competitions are inherently a bad thing.
What about the colliery brass band tradition which was very competitive indeed - but which gave many, many working class youngsters a chance to learn and to perform ?