people like him, giving him the prize is because it is rare. If parents want to push their children to go through this way, just recognize the risk (the winning chance is much much lower than going to Harvard), and go ahead do it.
Like I said many times here, if your children is a genius, just relax. You do not need to push a genius; he/she will find his/her own way to shine. For most of us, 99.9%, we do not have a genius children, we will have to push.
Not only in the US, in China, there many genius start to shine at very young age. It has nothing to do with the system/country.