I think too many people are too worried about what everybody else is doing. For me, the way I hunt and what with is more important than hunting itself. If I couldn't hunt the way I want and with what implements I choose, I simply wouldn't. I'd suggest to your 'friend' that he do the same.
As for what a deer does or does not want to do, Galileo said "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them".
It's up to the individual to decide how much knowledge, logic, reason, technology and manipulation to apply to his hunt. Personally, I like to trim back on the technology and minimize manipulation. Making up for stainless steel, synthetic stocks, high velocity bottleneck cartridges, optics, rangefinders, ballistic calculators, camouflage and other silly "modern" conveniences with skill and patience. Don't really care what everybody else does, beyond pitying those who are missing out on what I enjoy so much.
