Essentially what we have seen in the past 5 years is a market correction. Kids/families realizing improving times by 15-20sec in the 2mile meant better access to college/money. The question is, what market inefficiencies exist right now? Is 9:05/9:10 2mile still relatively slow for making a team than where it should be compared to other sports? If not, what sports should that profile of kid focus on?
I feel the throws are particularly weak - 2018 to 2026 depth in the shot put and javelin are largely unchanged - 63ft and 200ft rank similarly in each year. If a relatively strong/athletic kid puts all their effort into training those events for 4-6 years instead of football/baseball/whatever, they could get fairly close to those marks. Those distances might be what the 9:00 2mile was in 2018 - achievable for way more kids that put in the years of effort. While sprints have gotten significantly faster over the same period as the improvement in distance running, we've seen less of an improvement in the jumps. I'd recommend for quick but not elite sprinters (say the 10.6 to 10.9 type) to put all their focus into the jumps if college admissions/rosters is the goal.
That might also be the best route for the fringe 800m runners. Sophomore 2minute 800 runners might have as good a chance making a squad in the triple jump as I see jumpers in the 47-48 range with good grades getting on decent D1 rosters. With GREAT technique, you really only need lowish 11sec 100m speed and a 21 ft. long jump to go that distance, which might be trainable for a middling 800m specialist that puts all their eggs into the triple jump basket starting in 8th grade. Of course, hard to identify at that age what the potential of an 800m runner truly is. Would be hard to tell an 8th grader with a 2:10 800 to go all in on the triple jump!
Overall, I wouldn't complain about the roster crunch for long distance runners - they have it the best - large college rosters due to cross country. Imagine if there was a fall sport dedicated entirely to jumps!?