Well, it' obvious that to paint "out west" with one stroke of a broad brush is a dangerous thing to do. BUT I can tell you that the 8,000 acre ranch that I hunt mule deer and antelope on is WIDE open. NO trees, the tallest cover is about 18" tall yucca and it is spotty at best. There is more cactus than there is yucca! The grass is buffalo grass and gets about 4" tall at best. The landownder doesn't allow pits around his wind mills, which usually is the only water source, and the one time I left my blind set up over night, I found it ruined by his cattle the next morning.
In three years I have released one arrow. I connected on a 170" mulie. Other than that I have had so many spot and stalks fail on antelope and mulie, that I some times just have to laugh at myself.
The last two years, been trying to decoy antelope. It looks like it works on TV, but it hasn't really worked for me yet!!
I'm sure there are places "out west" where spot and stalk would lead to more close range shooting and calling is an option, on elk for instance. I know there are places that a tree stand works and obviously there are lots of places where pit blinds are allowed. So we need to be careful when give advice about what to expect "out west". The terrain can vary as much as the diffence between Britney Spears and Hillary Clinton!!