Would have thought they’d be excited to spend a year in the holy land, and away from their parents.
If you’re right, then these societal norms are a colossal waste of money. Essentially people spending money they don’t have on something they don’t need, because of how they hope others will perceive them (should I dare invoke the words Shidduch sham?)...
A large proportion of seminary and yeshiva students only go because of social norms and will be thrilled at the first excuse to stay home.
There are a lot of motivations for kids spending the gap year in Israel, and I don't doubt that there are plenty of people who have the wrong motivation and/or just doing it to tick the right boxes on a shidduch resume.
My father A"H went to learn for a year at Torah Ohr under R' Scheinberg, Z"L in the late 1960s. He and my uncle (his twin) were among the few "americans" learning there for the year - there was no Israel "program". My Zayde felt it was important for them to live and learn torah in our land. While my dad didn't make Aliyah, his other 3 siblings have. (We nearly moved in 1986, when he was offered a job, but my mom A"H nixed it).
I spent 1.5 years there before going to college. It was one of the most amazing and eye-opening experiences in my life. The feeling you get when you daven at the kotel, or when you are standing in a place where the stories you learned in Tanach actually happened, and you can visualize them coming to life. Let's be honest with ourselves - most of us live in silos - Ashkenazi , Sephardi, and many times even deeper than that. You go to shuls and meet people who are very different, who's davening is the same but has a little twist or two - and yet at the end of the day, we are all hashem's children , coming together with one language (english).
Forgive me for being overly romantic. Yes, I understand that not everyone had the same feelings and experience that I had (my BIL, for example, went to the same Yeshiva I did, two years before me and left after a couple of months). But I know the value I received from my gap year in Israel, and I am forever grateful to my parents for letting me go.