Jack,
I shouldn't speak for the OP but I think you are doing exactly what he's saying. I did not take his comments as saying we should fix our problems with fertilizer. He was simply saying you need to fertilize appropriately for your fields. As you improve soil health of a field it allows you to spend less time and $$$ (fertilizer) on that particular field and shift those resources to creating and maintaining more/other fields.
Perhaps I misunderstood the OP, but here is where I see the difference: What does "fertilize appropriately for your fields" mean? For most, and for me when I first started, it means following the soil test recommendations. I'm not sure what it means to the OP or any individual, but I've come to fall well out of the mainstream over time.
Soil test fertilizer recommendations are aimed at farmers and they include a lot of assumptions that don't apply to food plots. First, farmers want to maximize yield. That is not one of my objectives. For the most part, farmers plant monocultures and do so because that fits with harvest equipment and they harvest, we don't.
Most soil tests don't measure N and most that food plotters use don't even collect the necessary information to estimate banked N. So as far as an N recommendation goes, it is based solely on the requirements of the crop. P and K recommendations are based on a combination of measured levels and crop requirement.
Where possible, I use mixes that contain complementary plants. If you give you soil test results to 5 soil scientists along with the list of components and percentages in a mix and ask for a fertilizer recommendation, you will get 5 different recommendations.
This is not to say there is no place for fertilizer; there is. It is just not the same place it is for farming which is where we gravitate. When farmers harvest, they remove a lot from the field. We don't harvest. The only thing that leaves our fields is what deer eat and most of it is recycled in the form of droppings. It is all part of nutrient cycling.
I guess I see fertilizer as something I use in moderation because my soils have not been restored to full health yet. Different soils have different levels of underlying fertility. Farmers can sustain artificially increasing soil fertility because they can sell the crop for enough to cover their input cost and make a small profit in our system. Unless you are selling hunts, which we don't, it doesn't make sense for deer managers to do that. Instead, I think it makes sense to restore the soil health to level that is sustainable. In some cases, the soil may be in fine condition, but that is not the case on my place.
I'm not trying to disagree, because there are many approaches. I'm just adding my perspective for consideration. It has certainly changed over time.
Thanks,
Jack