I guess this is dependant on what kind of training you are looking for.
At one time I looked down on contracts and is some ways I don't fully agree with them but I understand why instructors use them. It is really no different than a fitness gym where you have a contract that comes out of your checking monthly. Would I ever join a place like this? Probably not, unless I knew the instruction was top notch. Which leads to the other point....
Good instruction often is not cheap. People like to talk about the basement masters who train you in the "uber secret deadly" but most of us realize now how much horse sh**it that really is. If i want to train with the best, I find a gym or camp that is producing champion fighters and that is where I will train. You can have an old chinese guy teach you great things for years but if you don't have the right training partners to test it out it won't mean all that much.
One of my favorite quotes;
"You are only as good as the people you train with" - Randy Couture
"The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero projects his fear onto his opponent while the coward runs. 'Fear'. It's the same thing, but it's what you do with it that matters". -Cus D'Amato