"What difference does it make if they are 5 inches or 20lbs?"

The difference is that when I use bait I hook more smolt which are much more likely to die as a result than the 20lbr...

"If you are fishing a river that is C&R and you come across a boat that is pulling bait divers. Your first reaction is to jump all over them for fishing in such a manner, where there are only nates."

Where did you ever get this idea? I would never chastise anyone for fishing within the rules. I have pulled bait divers this year in a river with predominantly native fish, not really by choice as I was fishing in someone elses boat. The taking of native fish was allowed at the time. I wasn't the captain at the time and didn't really want to make waves. I also wasn't aware of the difference in hooking mortality until very recently. At the time, if someone would have given me a hard time about pulling divers I probably would have gotten pretty defensive because I was within the rules.

"I fish in C&R rivers, I accept that I'm going to kill some on accident."

I have said many times that to C&R for native steelhead you know that you will probably kill the occasional fish.

The main difference I think between our opinions is our differing experiences on the river. Before I quit using bait in the summer I caught hundreds of salmon and steelhead smolt almost exclusively natives. I switched to using hardware and plugs and I now catch nearly zero smolt.

In both of our cases our experiences have dictated our ethics. I am not sure what your home river is, maybe there is a reason you aren't catching many smolt while using bait in the summer.