Have to disagree with your first two points for the US.
On 1, soccer became popular because there were organizations providing soccer for a fee. There may have been pockets of the US where kids would just go outside and play. That's not how it grew to be so big across the country though. These days it's not unusual to pay thousands of dollars a year to get on a club team - and that's where the fun is. I've never seen anything like that for chess.
On 2, player age and physical development matter a ton. One of the things I warn parents about when getting into soccer is to find a coach that focuses on player development rather than winning. Many teams make playing time and position decisions based only on which players are the biggest and fastest. (Those parents are getting ripped off, since the big and fast players don't develop skills, and the others don't learn the game.) This is quite different from chess, since as you note, size, sex, height, and age do not matter.
On 1, soccer became popular because there were organizations providing soccer for a fee. There may have been pockets of the US where kids would just go outside and play. That's not how it grew to be so big across the country though. These days it's not unusual to pay thousands of dollars a year to get on a club team - and that's where the fun is. I've never seen anything like that for chess.
On 2, player age and physical development matter a ton. One of the things I warn parents about when getting into soccer is to find a coach that focuses on player development rather than winning. Many teams make playing time and position decisions based only on which players are the biggest and fastest. (Those parents are getting ripped off, since the big and fast players don't develop skills, and the others don't learn the game.) This is quite different from chess, since as you note, size, sex, height, and age do not matter.