Ive been out there a handful of times now and I can see both sides of the argument. Most of the more "respectful" fishermen use circle hooks, fish the deeper pools, let their flies work through the flowing water as opposed to casting out in 2 feet of water every 10 seconds with a quick retrieve looking for a snag. Unless you tie your own, its hard to get your hands on circle hook flies. Its also about 1000000x more satisfying hooking a fish fair, and I imagine its also very satisfying hooking a fish on a fly u tied yourself!
A couple weeks back there were two guys in a white canoe (said they were from a local band although they looked caucasian to me, but lets not get into that) casting spinning rods with buzz bombs through a shallow riffle, and every fish they snagged ended up back in the canoe, flopping around because they couldnt be bothered to bonk them. They seemed pretty impressed with themselves too judging by all the highfiving and shouting. They took both coho and chum. That was disappointing to witness, to say the least.
With that said, Ive been out there a few times and had a lot of fun learning some of the basics of river fishing and flyfishing. I try to do so respectfully, while minimizing my impact on the fish and their spawning grounds. A lot of the old timers there are super nice guys too, that have a real love for fishing, and a respect for nature and the fish.
So its not all bad, fellas.