As a college hockey player, I did just enough to get a level1 certification so I could ref college in-house league games for cash, and I'll be the first to admit that it's a lot harder than you might think.
The reffing issues will never be resolved if the leagues don't increase pay. Most experienced refs do not want to get up early to ref kids games, and get yelled at by parents for spare change, so you are left with mostly inexperienced and beginner refs. This should be fairly obvious to most observers, as you regularly see people out there who can't skate well enough to keep up with 10 year olds, to say nothing of kids who are 12+.
There is also, understandably, some institutionalized regional bias, as refs work within their locale and may or may not start to lean a bit towards the local teams from the rinks they work at.
In summary, don't expect even adequate performance from youth hockey refs and you won't be disappointed. The attitude of the various leagues towards the refs, is that they may make mistakes, but at the end of the day, teams and parents are expected to sit and watch the games respectfully and accept whatever degree of competency the refs are able to muster.