On the issue of LL Softball being nothing more than LL Baseball played by girls with a larger yellow ball, that has been changing in the recent past. LL HQ has realized that in order to attract more girls to the LL family, they needed to make LL Softball more like other youth softball programs.
So they have changed things like playing their post-season tournaments on skinned infields, implementing more softball-only rules like requiring a batter to pull the bat back on a bunt attempt or the pitch will be ruled a strike, mandating the catcher must return the ball back to the pitcher after a pitch except on a strike out or play on a runner, look back rule and leaving early rule. Yeah, they still have a way to go. LL doesn't recognize the dead ball appeal in softball. And it penalizes illegal pitches in Majors and Minors with only a ball on the batter (no base advance by runners). But they'll get there.
Like Rich Ives said, there are no pitch count rules in softball. LL does require mandatory rest rules based on innings pitched per day for pitchers 12 and under when they play Majors or Minors. A pitcher can only pitch 12 innings max in a day, and once they pitch seven or more innings in one day, they must rest for one calendar day. But for Juniors and Seniors (including 12 year olds playing up in Juniors), there are no restrictions.
As for this whole disqualification thing, I made plenty of comments in a number of Facebook groups. Suffice it to say that I thought the decision was justified in that LL has a philosophy to uphold that places emphasis on developing model citizens, not stud athletes, when it comes to the entire purpose of the program, and these girls did not live up to that image.
Any lesser punishment would make Williamsport hypocritical in how it treats rule violators. Teams get disqualified from tournament play for players who, intentionally or accidentally, are not eligible to be on a team. It used to be that teams would be required to forfeit games for failing to meet mandatory play rules. They've scaled back on that because some situations were created by circumstances beyond a coach's control. So whether they disqualified the whole Atlee team, or they suspended the seven girls involved in the bird-flipping picture (assuming the one who took the picture and posted it was a player), it resulted in the team's inability to play the championship under either circumstance.
As for Kirkland getting the benefit of playing in the championship, that's not unprecedented in LL tournament play. Anytime a team is disqualified for a violation, LL reverts back to the previous team that would have advanced. When the Jackie Robinson LL team forfeited its US Championship two years ago, the Las Vegas team that lost to them in the US Final was named US champs. It was just serendipitous that Kirkland was in a position to advance because they were 2-2 in Pool A play, and was the third seed from Pool A in the brackets. They had to beat the second seed from Pool B to advance to the game against Atlee.
Atlee and Kirkland had played earlier in the tournament as part of Pool A play. Atlee beat the snot out of them, 16-2, scoring 8 runs in the top of the sixth to run-rule them. Something must have transpired during that game, or afterward before the two teams played each other again in the semifinal, that prompted Atlee to pull off its stupid Snapchat SNAFU. Maybe there was some smack talk that took place in the three days between the two games. Who knows.
Finally, I do think the LL rule on sign-stealing is stupid. The rule is found under LL rule 9.01(d) in the Umpires section, and says,
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"NOTE: The local league has the option to adopt this rule application. The stealing and relaying of signs to alert the batter of pitch selection and/or location is unsportsmanlike behavior. If, in the judgment of the umpire, this behavior is occurring, both the player and the manager may be ejected from the game.
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What prompted this rule, I dunno. Perhaps it all came about from the whole "I Won't Cheat" crusade that LL went on when it put those patches on tournament team uniforms, and someone in a position of authority argued that sign stealing was cheating, so it had to be outlawed. Whatever the case, LL felt strong enough to not only have it as an optional rule during regular season play, but to make it a mandatory rule in tournament play. Pretty dumb. We may as well outlaw the stealing of bases as well, since it does involve, well, stealing.