My thoughts are probably different than Salmos but......

The steelhead are depressed for a variety of reasons. In my mind, one of the largest is the lack of spawning salmon. So long as we keep salmon escapements low the steelhead runs will be low. And by low, I mean 5-10% of what's needed.

There are too few repeat spawners, which may be tied to lack of nutrients.

One thing about steelhead is that the adult return based rather strongly on what age they smolted at. Age-1 smolts return earliest, age-2 later, and age-3 the latest. This is one, and maybe the primary, reason why the hatchery fish returned earlier than the bulk of the wilds. If we want to restore the earlier returning component we need to decrease smolt age, which gets us back to nutrients.

The steelhead are also being hammered by the increases in various predators. Until they and the smolt numbers are better balanced, few smolts will make the ocean.

Ocean productivity is really low, for a variety of reasons. Until the aspects of that which humans can control (hatchery plants, over harvest of steelhead prey, etc) are controlled, we'll get few fish back.

We can recover our anadromous fish, if society wants to. At the same time, robust wild fish populations are likely unable to sustain the kill fisheries many desire.