Don, I had an uncle who died from cancer over 20 years ago.
He was born and raised in the depression. He lied about his age, joined the Canadian army at 16 to fight in WW11 and fought with them til the European campaign was done.
He was a trucker, drove big trucks full of gasoline for thirty years. No one ever confused him with an eight year old girl.
I started hunting with him and my Dad when I was 14 or 15, too young to get a license but game wardens weren't abundant back then.
Our family had a deer camp in some big woods in Ontario and we all looked forward to those weeks in the fall.
Eventually my uncle stopped bringing a gun. Said he didn't want to kill anything any more. Didn't blame those who did, but he'd had enough. He'd come to the camp and do the 'dogging' and refused every entreaty to carry a firearm.
We resented that. No one disparged his manhood, because it wouldn't have been healthy, but it just seemed that his attitude somehow reflected badly upon what WE were doing.
It's taken a long time, but I understand now how he felt. He wasn't against hunting. He didn't get on a soapbox. He just lost his desire to kill something. Maybe he'd seen enough of it in the '40's. Who knows. He didn't say and we didn't ask.
Anyway, I'd rather have a great chase and have the game live to run another day. However a 'great' chase can often mean a catch and kill. When that happens, there's a feeling of pride and happiness in how well my hounds performed and a feeling of sadness that a great game animal won't run anymore.
I agree with you that a lot of it depends on the stage of the journey that we've reached and, from the experience with my uncle Lorne, I understand the frustration of those hunters who haven't reached that stage.
Hope we can get through our differences and concentrate on the things we hold in common. Our enemies are many. We need all the friends we can get.

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