It's a case of buying 18-19 year-olds with quality ending in 4 or 9 vs 22-25 year old scouts with quality ending 4 or 9 that are already 75 skill points ahead of the 18-19 year-old, It probably cost 120T to bring an 18-19 year-old to a high end scout via Power Training and not forgetting the purchase price of the player from the auctions.
I'd say the scouts just 'edge' it, because of the cost initally to get the 18-19 year-old to 7*