I am sure others have said this, but at the moment the balance between buying in ready made heroes and training your own seems to favour buying in. I could train that new level 3 recruit or I could buy a 5 star prodigy and have a ready made winning team. Maybe a fix is that recruits can have their temperaments "fixed" over time and that they have generally higher skill ceilings. Then it might be worth raising someone who will actually listen to instruction or rest...