Yeah, I am not overly impressed with the "Not trying hard enough" insinuation either. I once shot a heavy bodied buck a little after 7:00 AM and was still about 200 yards from a road at 5:00 PM. A couple locals saw me and helped me drag it to the road.
Sometimes I take birdseed along if I plan to sit all day. Put some on a boulder and watch the different birds stop by. I like to walk once the hunting calms down, but the last few years it does not calm down. You bump into a lot of hunters sneaking around or just checking for new deer sign. Most of these guys seem to know what they are doing.
I realize there are good years and bad years. A bad acorn crop will ruin the rifle season for me in a hurry. I don't hunt the "Corn woods" like a lot of Gary Alt followers. The herd needed to be thinned down in the 80's, but there is a point when you must ease up. All the studies done don't seem to touch on what the over pressure is doing to a deer "Family group". Young deer learn from older deer. The first Gary Alt line of crap was "Only shoot big does". I have watched (Years back) small herds running around confused after the lead doe was shot. They simply did not know what to do. There has been more damage done to the deer herd than depletion.