The primary purpose of "balanced" XLR is to run audio cables at distances of up to a few hundred feet without problems/interference that you would no doubt get if you were running an RCA cable.

If you go to radio shack and buy a passive adapter that goes from RCA to XLR you will not suddenly be able to run your audio cable a few hundred feet and expect it to sound equal to if you ran an XLR cable that same distance into an XLR input camera.

If it's audio related, it's never easy.

K. I'll try to say it a different way.
Run your cable as far as you wish. 25 feet or 2500 feet.
Plug the end of the XLR cable into a transformer device, be it a beachtek, ATUS plug, mixer, or direct box. It can be passive. It does not require power, therefore it's passive.
Plug a high impedance cable into the transformer device.
Plug the other end of your high impedance cable into the camera's mic or RCA inputs, take your pick.
If the cable from the transformer device is short, preferably less than 6 feet, it won't be plagued by noise in most situations.
With audio, it is quite easy. It's just that you have to know the rules. From where I stand, basketball isn't easy.

I've never had problems with the MA-100/200 and I don't recall ever hearing of one failing. However, of the tens of thousands of the Canon adapters in use, I'm sure there has been a failure or two. I've had many more cable failures than adapter failures.

XLR
 

So what I am getting from this conversation, that I dont need to look for a camera with direct XLR connection. I would just need to spring a couple hundred more bones for an adapter.

Not even that much, if your cam has a decent pre in it, and if I remember right, it does. 2 direct boxes would cost around 50.00. An active box starts around 99.00, but you'll need two. Straight transformer cables, which work much like a direct box, only are in-line, cost about the same as a DI (Direct box) but are less of a hassle since they stay cabled. However, be cautious of using inline cables, as if they are not long enough to hit the floor, and you forget to Velcro them to your handle or tripod, the mere weight of them can bend the high impedance mic input of your camera.

Well I've blurred the terms pre-amp and transformer together, didn't mean to do that, but I've always had experts help me before video shoots so I tend to know what works without knowing the correct "innards description".

Can one buy an actual XLR to RCA adapter with a built in transformer?

The beachtek design is quite clever. The earlier models were incorrectly designed and used the wrong type of tapered audio pot. As a result if you weren't exactly dialed in, you wouldn't get a proper level. I know this because we tested one at a video club that I belonged to. It was very difficult to get the ideal "sweet spot" and our technical guru pointed out the design mistake.

You can learn about pots at the following link. http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm

I assume this design flaw was fixed in subsequent years as their product has now been around for several years.