VEX is arguably the manifestation of this philosophy. The team I mentor has multiple VEX teams along with a flagship FRC team. VEX offers a good deal of the excitement, learning opportunities, and more student autonomy for a small fraction of the cost. I'll always be loyal to FRC but for schools that currently run a struggling FRC program, it's almost certainly true that they could be running multiple VEX teams and involving more students for less money.