This seems to be the way to go. I get it, they're top class athletes and they can demand a salary they feel is worthy of their talent. However, if the club doesn't have the money or revenue stream (I know COVID messed with a lot of the La Liga clubs this way because they didn't have the usual attendance rates), you can't justify spending some of these sums on one player.
I feel Ajax does a good job of taking youths and training them into great talents, though they then usually get gobbled up by the bigger clubs.