Conversely, I'm sick of all the guys who think long range hunting isn't hunting because they don't do it. Here's a picture of the terrain we find Coues deer in out in southern AZ. If you can only shoot 125 yards, you will be hard pressed to kill a buck. You can do it, but you won't get one every year:
I've only killed two coues deer in my day. Shot one at 225 yards, the other was a similar distance, I didn't have a rangefinder back then. If I had been set up to shoot farther then like I am now, I'd have killed more. My dad can only shoot out to like 200 yards and guess how many deer he's killed out here (2 less than me). Just because the farthest shot you can possibly take in the Alabammy forests is 150 yards doesn't mean there is different vegetation and different terrain that other folks hunt animals in. Just because
YOU can't shoot past 300 yards doesn't mean that I can't.
Here's another picture. The pile of white rocks on the closest hill past the binoculars is around 400 yards. Once you get on the same hillside as the deer it is thick enough you'd have to jump them and take a running shot. What's more ethical? Shooting at running deer off-hand at 80 yards or standing deer with a rest and rangefinder at 400 yards? Of course the skill level of the shooter is the main determinant, not just the yardage.
It takes SKILL to develop a load, figure out your maximum range, find a good spot, glass your arse off until you find a little 100 pound deer in the vegetation, and make a good shot. That's all there is to it. Just cause you can't doesn't mean others shouldn't.
I am in agreement with you on one aspect though; there is a right way to do it and there is guessing. One leads to a high recovery rate, the other doesn't. And that's the one that happens the most.