It is important to understand the context of Robbie's article, which is for those aspiring to get to the top 10% of refereing L6 and above through Federation, Group or National Panels.
Hampshire Society Grade Splits 2011-12
Level # %
Panel 2 2%
5 1 1%
6 9 10%
7 4 4%
8 10 11%
9 18 19%
10 25 27%
11 23 24%
12 1 1%
ELRA 1 1%
Societies give any member (of whatever age) who is committed to progress as high as they can. Committed means taking appointments, putting yourself out, attending Training Meetings, doing regular personal fitness training as well as the wekeend matches, having a PDP, be proactive & do the RFU Continuous Referee Development Award and RFU Extended Referee Development Award. If a referee has the ability, potential, and dedication they can climb as high as they wish up to L6. After that selected to Federation, Group & Panel is based on both actual performance and a competitive selection process, as there are only so many matches at those levels as the RFU League pyramid narrows rapidly. The amount of time, support & actual financial investment invested by RFU, Group, Federations and Societies in those who have the ability and potential (and as said earlier the commitment) is enormous and so a 'return' on that investment over an extended period is needed.
Starting after a long playing career in our late 30s or early 40s (as I did at 40) makes it very difficult to give that return at Group/Panel level. Even for those of younger ages in their mid 30s who get to Federation or Group level, the pathway gets more and more narrow and they may well plateau and not be competitive to make the next step up compared to others on the squad. That is evident after two or sometimes three seasons, and so why should they be a bottlenck and take a squad place preventing the next high potential referee from making the step up.
To make the point it is essential to bear in mind that from 5,500 referees and 45 or so Societies, the National Panel is about 50 refs across the whole country, each of the four Groups at L5 has 10 or less members, and most Federations have four or five squad members at L6.
The referee Pathway is for a sports volunteer and is based on continual assessment, and so not comparable to employment interviews.