Apart from being well bankrolled for the past decade or two, the County system had decent preparation for the time ultimately when the kid was told they're not going to make it, they used to have education programmes in place so when the County starlets failed to break through ( highly likely) then the transition path to highland league was already there.
Not sure what we had/have in place but I know of a lot of unhappy endings in regards to players in the system for ten years just getting shown the door. And this wasnt a recent thing, this was in the 'glory' years under Sutherland and Fraser.
In reality the County system is more of a community engagement vehicle, as they buy in all their players so the chances are less than slim for the youths.
We, on the other hand have a more realistic pathway below Premier level so should and have had more success than them. Being skint all the time contributes to this as well, of course.