I find your statement that kids today are more intelligent to be false. I generally find kids today, despite a greater access to information, don't use it. They are not well read, in fact most do little reading whatsoever, have virtually no grasp of history, are not capable of doing actual research, and are extremely superficial and do not ask deep questions of anything.
Further, I have been in Raps and Propheets, a few years earlier than yourself, and I can attest that they are abuse and have virtually no legitimate therapeutic value. The authorities that investigated Mount Bachelor, interviewed the teens about what went on, and determined based on that testimony that the program was abusive, degrading and being run by people with no credentials or little if any training. They shut it down for many reasons.
If Hilltop saved your life, I think that is great. I don't know what you attribute to the program as being the key to your life saving experience, but for many of us who went through these programs, we were not saved. Our experiences were different from your own. Being yelled at, humiliated and degraded for two straight years did nothing to make us better people. For us, it did not save us. Many of us felt we didn't need to be saved to begin with, that our "crimes" were not so severe that they required us being imprisoned far from our homes and families and friends and subjected to daily abuse.
So what saved you? Work details? Full times? Endless labor? Being yelled at regularly for the most trivial of matters? Pounding your fists in to pillows and screaming obscenities at your parents and yourself? Condemning your friends to death in a life boat experience? Writing your epitaph? Perhaps it was the blaring, repetitive music? Maybe watching girls dress up in skimpy outfits and performing lap dances for staff and students? Did the lugs help?
I find that most who claim they were saved or the program helped them end up really just saying they met some great friends, had some fun at the farm, or going on hikes, and don't mention anything about the actual program itself. And when you discuss the program specifically, they can't form cohesive positions because the program was so weird and bizarre they are still a bit vague on what exactly it was all about.
Best intentions is something I also hear repeated. That the staff weren't intentionally trying to hurt us. That they had the best intentions in mind. That they weren't evil, they just didn't know. When the authorities shut down Mount Bachelor, they weren't claiming anyone was evil. They weren't claiming that the staff didn't have good intentions. They simply recognized abuse and humiliation and trauma when they heard it or saw it. It's funny that when real psychologists and therapists are brought in to access the programs, they come away horrified. It's not too hard to spot abuse. Just because someone says they had best intentions in mind, doesn't change the fact that what they did was wrong. I firmly believe every staff member thought what they were doing to the kids was righteous and working. That they were providing a real and valuable service with actual benefits. And I firmly believe that there are kids who completed these programs and were left with the feeling that they experienced something positive and beneficial. But what you believe is not always the truth. But if you believed it worked for you, I can also believe it didn't. Those kids at Mount Bachelor decided that the program abused them. The authorities agreed with them. Nobody claims you have to believe them. But society places more authority in the position of the State, as opposed to individuals. And in this case, society has decided Mount Bachelor and its program, the same program (Generally speaking) used at Hilltop, CEDU and RMA, was abuse and of no therapeutic or value as proper counseling. Even Mount Bachelor admitted in court testimony they never provided no counseling, therapy or treatment. Which is why when graduated I know talk about how RMA helped them, it's all about things not associated with the program itself. The program provides nothing. The isolation produces close friendships. The isolation generates a setting where drugs and alcohol and partying are mostly absent. So I contend that the isolation was what produced results, some temporary, some lasting. Not the program. Such as it was.