When to get “serious” about hockey

Have a question for you folks. My 7 year old plays for a local AA program, he is quite good but not exceptional - we live in the NY/NJ/CT the parents are competitive, so there is this pressure to play at a higher level. My kid is perfectly happy in his current program, but the truth is that the program is pricey and fairly mediocre on a plus side it is pretty close to our house.

The question I have for all of you is when/if do we switch? I can definitely see a skills gap getting wider between him and some of his buddies who joined better rated programs. When does it start to matter? I was told not to worry about this until the kid is 10? I’ve also seen kids from his program move on to AAA at 12 or even later…

However, other parents have told me that good programs don’t have too many openings so you have to get in early…

I don’t want to put too much pressure on the kid and make him hate hockey, but he is already putting in a lot of hard work and I don’t want him to be at a disadvantage