tzippi: I apoligize, I didn’t address your last point.
NO one (that I know of) is advocating that boys get married before they are ready simply to alleviate the age gap induced shidduch crisis. However many boys (ready or not) start dating after x amount of years of bais medrash. Those same boys if they didn’t go to EY would start dating a bit earlier. They would be no more nor less ready.