Quick I am going to answers this question as honest as I can.

Plain truth is many of us, me included simply just do not know what the top end deer is in our area.

My dad has lived on our farm for his entire life, how many 170+ deer has he seen alive? 0 My neighbor living room window looks right into big buck paradise here in MI. He has never seen a monster, he has seen some 125'' deer, but not any big boys.

Until a person decides to make a 110% commitment to hunting the top on deer in his area. He simply will not know what is there, and if he has a pressured area,it willjust got 100 times harder IMO.
I am not saying this is "Gospel", it's just the way it is for hunting top end deer in your area.

I can tell you how it works. First year the hunter may see one. He will see a lot of 1.5 and 2.5 bucks, at this point he realizes he is hunting the wrong spots. Second year he starts to see some bigger deer and he starts getting an understanding of what he needs to do. Third year I bet he gets a shot, and from than on one just keeps learning. The more you learn and more one applies the more shots he will get.

Putting a lot of time in a stand does not gurantee one will see a top end buck. Hunting Hard is only about 10% of the equation IMO.

What's the trade off? Time of course and this is a decsion each hunter has to make for himself.

I will not know myself these next 16 years, I have commitments to my children and wife. I may go buckless for a long time