This kills me

We can't continue to have our best young players skip past MLS and pull splinters out of their butts in their late teens/early 20's
Andy, I can understand your sentiment but many many good players spent their late teens early 20's on developmental squads and on lower tier loans like Lichaj has. Lichaj is 21 and by all accounts likely to start getting some first team action with Villa this season. With the managerial situation uncertain, that is a bit of a risk by him but from what I know, they think pretty highly of him. We'll have to see how this plays out by I had about the exact opposite reaction that you did to this news. Villa is a very good club that clearly wants him and has committed multiple years to him.
My wording was poor. I was VERY happy that Villa signed him for the next three years. I am horrified at how little playing time he has received in the previous 3 years, which are crucial for American players, especially with our lack of depth.I am not a big fan of development squads when he could be playing in MLS (assuming he was good enough, which may be an incorrect assumption on my part). I just prefer the way M. Bradley, Howard and others went about it. They were significantly seasoned in MLS before going overseas.
I agree that an MLS path is quite good for some players. But I do think everyone is a bit different and like in the NFL, Jeff Garcia can take a path playing in the CFL and turn into an all-pro late in his career and Tony Romo can hold a clipboard for 5 years or whatever.I'm not as turned off by the lack of playing time honestly. Lichaj is young and for the most part, games are just games. Training is where players improve the most and games are just used to see if they are incorporating that coaching or not. For this purpose reserve games and 4th division games are just as good as league games. In this case, when a club like Villa is investing in him and see him as a potential future starter, they are going to do their best to develop him and maximize their investment. Short term it may not be great for the Nats as he may not be game fit at the moment, but long term I think it will be very beneficial.