Tutoring, is it necessary?

As the years progress, it seems that more and more students are competing to be the best.  They enroll in various SAT and ACT study programs to raise their scores, so their dream college will accept them.  Now though, parents are enrolling their kids into tutoring programs at the age of 3.  To me, this just seems like a crazy scheme for tutoring programs to steal parents money.  At 3 years old, kids are learning no matter where they are.  They could be sitting in a sandbox surrounded by other kids their age, and leave that box with more knowledge than when they went in.  All tutors will do is teach the kids the same things they could be learning while playing and leading a normal life.  I understand kids needing help in various subjects later on in life, but I don't see the point in forcing kids to learn when they may not even need the extra help.  I know that I never went to preschool, never went to tutoring, hardly ever went to a teacher outside of school for help, and I am completely satisfied with my grades and test scores.  Sometimes, the best way for a kid to learn is for him or her to learn from the mistakes he or she makes.  If I just went running for help everytime I answered a question incorrectly, I don't think I would have learned as much as I have from looking at my mistakes and figurig out where I went wrong by myself.  Tutoring is a good thing for someone who trys to understand his or her coursework and trys to figure out his or her mistakes, but if parents are sending their children to tutors so they can be "ahead" of other kids their age, then all they probably want is to be able to brag about all the new things their kids have learned to the other parents, who will then push their children to succeed as well.  Why put their kids into competition with one another when what they should really be doing is teaching their kids to get along with everyone, not just kids in their IQ range.