If my last school tried to run our school like this, then we would have lost many customers who want to learn Kung Fu but not for fighting. To give you When I started doing Kung fu sparring classes on a regular bases. The class went empty for a year before any of the current student's joined. Out of 25 students only 5 wanted to take that path and only 2 had the skill set and toughness to compete in MMA. 1 of the 2 wouldn't have done it because he's a surgeon. A lot of the students were children. The adults students had Jobs that were better than fighting MMA so there's no incentive to get busted up for less money. They were satisfied with being able to protect themselves in the street and to have the ability to say that they know how to use Kung Fu, which is a big deal considering most student's don't know how to use the martial arts that they train as for self defense. They can do the basics but that's usually where it sticks.Having active fighters & competitors in your school, generates a lot of interests & excitement among the other students. This will bring in more students & further promote your style & yourself/gym. But you have to be open to the aspects of MMA fighting, which is what's dominating the MA world.
Fighting at a high competition level comes with a lot of things that most people just don't want to deal with.
Everyone is fearful because people keep dying for it. My friend just contacted me 2 days ago and told me his mom died from Covid. No one wants to die from something that could have been avoided. No parent wants to there kid to die from either. Parent's should protect their kids and when they can't or don't many will feel as if they are to blame, even if they aren't.But actually, it's BJJ that's dominating in terms of bringing in students. I'm in a State that's very Liberal, so during this Delta variant Covid19 spread, we have to wear masks again and everyone's fearful,
As for the schools making money. I find that to be more of a business knowledge issue as to why TMA schools do not do well with attracting students. When I was teaching we were getting a lot of students and were actually running out of training space. The thing that attracted the student's was my ability to use Jow Ga. In short, someone says I can teach you how to use Kung Fu. The customer will think "Show me that you can use kung fu." Most people who want to learn Kung Fu for self-defense wants to learn from someone who can actually use it. Normally schools will showcase trophies, but for me, I would show case my sparring and my training methods.
Students weren't looking for Professional fighter grade training. Professional fighter grade training is unrealistic for many people since the amount of training would interfere with other parts of their life. I even had other Jow Ga students from other schools seek my help. But politically that's not a good thing since I'm not a Sifu.
Kung Fu and Martial Arts don't have the same limitations as systems that are heavily focused on grappling. I can provide quality training to students with less contact than what BJJ, Judo, or wrestler's need.