Saddened to hear of your experience, but frankly, not surprised.

C&R means more than simply letting your fish go. It means you head out to the river equipped in a manner that you'll lessen the chances of harming the fish. Does this mean it'll never happen? Of course not! No matter how careful you are, there's still going to be some cases where the offering is taken and the hook ends up in a a not-so-good spot.

But you can lessen these incidents by: avoiding the use of extremely light line; extremely tiny hooks / offerings; avoidance of areas where post-spawn (actively feeding) fish tend to hang - no set "rule" here, it's more of a matter of river knowledge, I've seen post spawn fish come from fast water, slack water and everything in-between, but I've also noticed certain spots that almost always seem to be infested with downriver fish that we now tend to avoid; bait divers are killers, IMHO, they have no place in a C&R fishery and that's why despite their effectiveness, I discontinued the use of them several years ago. The list could go on and on ...

You're right in saying that it's no better than whacking one on the head and quitting if you're going to kill them all day long .... but you have to look limiting that possibility in the first place!