Spike, I totally agree with your point about the wrongness of retro-guilt. You see people trying to make some group feel guilty about something that their ancestors did long ago all the time. Your one or two fish per year did not cause the decline in salmon and steelhead. However, as Buckaroo Bonzai said, "wherever you go there you are". We have to deal with the way the situation is now, regardless of how it got this way. The fact is that killing wild fish is a lousy management strategy. See Salmo's posts for details, but for now I'll just say that WDFW's recent rich history of mid-season regulation changes is proof that not enough slop is built into their models.

As someone pointed out, your C&R numbers seem screwed up, but still your point is valid and should be examined rather than dismissed as heresy. If someone catches and kills three or five wild fish a year, and some other guy (or guide) practices C&R on 100 -- and kills five incidentally, who among these has a right to point fingers at the other?
The problem with your stance is that these are exceptions. Most meat fisherman probably kill more than five fish a year and most C&R people catch a lot fewer than 100 per year. I know I do. So the scales tip towards C&R as a better way to manage sport fishing.