CM-
Historically hatchery programs worked because of the protected environments produced significantly higher smolts per females, perhaps as much as 20 times smolts per female than most wild populations.

There are many variables control steelhead characteristics so there a plenty of exceptions to your blanket statements. For example the Skagit despite having 10 times as many salmon spawning per mile of anadromous habitat as north OP streams have older smolts. In this case a significant factor is the later spawn timing of the Skagit fish.

With reasonable marine survival (smolt to adult) like that seen in the 1980s basin like the Snohomish say increasing run sizes even though harvest rates exceeded the repeat spawning rate. Of course if a population is at or near carrying capacity for the current conditions for fish like steelhead R/S will always average around 1.

Curt