You know, I always wondered why folks killed the big racks. That just selects for deer with the small racks. Now days, we have all this management to make up for that. Makes sense if you want the big racks. But, I'm happy with a spike (legal here). It's meat in the freezer.
Going after the big antlers is just money, really, more you pay, the more you can play. You can spend 10 grand on a deer here in Texas. I'd rather spend that 10 grand on prime beef.
As to genetics, breeding, and cattle, well, it ain't quite the same. Cattle are selectively bred for their meat quality. They usually have their horns polled, cut off. If they were bred for their horns, those stringy, tough long horns that guy raises down the road would be in high demand for more than just pets for some Texas ex.
I think it's the money thing that turns me off on trophy hunting. I've never been a man of means. My wife's cousin was a podiatrist, made lots of money, had an exorbitantly expensive managed trophy lease down in south Texas for years and flies around to Pennsylvania and Saskatchewan and other places looking for horns to shoot. He don't even like venison, gives it away to hunters for the hungry, which is fine by me. I admire him for not wasting it.
He's even been a partner in a South African ranch, sold his interest. He's got stuff on his wall I don't even know what it is, various African antelope and such. He's retired now and has a might more limited budget. No more trips to Africa, though he does still chase trophy whitetail. I think, though, that he's more into fishing now days, sorta has bored of the trophy thing.
See, difference in him and me is he wasn't born to it, didn't have a mentor at an early age. I grew up a country boy with a rifle in my hand chasing squirrels, then a shotgun chasing birds. It's sorta part of my make up to kill my own dinner. I have a few racks around mounted, they'd all get laughed at by a book chaser. So be it, they make ME happy because they represent memories. I'm sure his trophies represent more exotic memories, but my memories are just as important to me, the memories I could afford over the years.