The players that are "scouted" are now costing extortionate amounts of tokens - between 950 and 12500 PLUS game funds.
you mean those "recommended" players ?

That's just another "potato" from marketing dept.
With 20 tokens you can buy a young fast trainer and with 150-200 greens (6-7 days of farming vids) you can make him an excellent 120% player.
How long are you playing the game ?