I have already stated my opinion on this topic earlier. But I have to add some more.
Onpoint, it seems to me that your biggest beef is pay hunting, in fact I would bet it would be fair to say that you hate pay hunting. If you read my earlier post, then you know that is fine with me, it is suppose to be a free country, and you can have your own opinion.
Now about pay hunting here is what I see. I hunted in South Dakota every year from 1983 to 1996, and then again in 2000. I never paid, because it was different then, and there were less phesants then also.
I live in south central Nebraska, I own some of my own land. I hunt every weekend in about a 5 mile radius of my place. Almost everyone I ask lets me hunt, for free.
The pheasant hunting around my place is average at best. Yes there are some birds but nothing like South Dakota. That is why it is free!!!! It kind of sucks, you have to hunt hard to get 2 or 3 birds. Now if the farmers around me left some crops in (costs money) didn't plant that pivot corner to corn, just left weeds there (costs money) left some land for pheasants (costs money) then we might have a lot more pheasants.
And guess what, if the farmers are spending money to have more pheasants do you think they are going to let me hunt for free? Hell no.
Onpoint, to me it is pretty simple economics. In South Dakota the land quality is lower for farming, little to no irrigation, rocky ect. The return to farmers for farming for pheasants is much higher than it is for Iowa or Nebraska farmers who have much higher quality farm ground, and pay much higher taxes on that farm ground.
So I do not agree with you that pay hunting is the end to hunting. Just go ask to hunt pheasants in Nebraska and Iowa in areas that are not farmed for pheasants and you will see it is still free. Free simply because there are not very many pheasants.