What effect does it have on you if a coach takes a kid on their team and they cover their fees? That coach has obviously decided that having that player on their team is more important than some money and worked something out with her parents, and unless the kids parents are strutting around bragging about it like a couple of idiots you're never even going to know about it. It likely happens a lot more than any of us know.
Situations like this can have a huge impact on the team. These are not really hardship situations that I have no issues with but I do have issues where a family wants or thinks they should play for free.
I know there are situations where a coach has helped out a family in need so there DD could play. Over the years I helped players that were hurt financially and had hardships by getting them candy to sell, help with fundraising activities or addressing the team. I had a player that both mom and dad both worked for a company that closed and moved so the team pitched in to pay their fees and help out with travel expenses. That is part of being a team.
Teams that do this as a practice is a slap in the face for the parents on the team that take part time jobs to pay for their DDs ball and I would never dream of bumping up the team fees to have a "slush fund" to pay out to a player and do so without informing your parents is an integrity issue I would have with the coach.
Doing this also does not guarantee loyalty to the team or program. Since the family has no vested interest they can be more free to jump ship. We had a coach that had a big heart and lowered his team fees and subsidized the team cost during 12/14U to get some good but underprivileged players. By 16U he was getting finically hurt with hotels and parents taking advantage of him not sending money for food etc and low and behold by 16U several bailed for greener pastures after their DDs got noticed by other organizations at the events he was attending.