Question to your quote. I agree with you........So why do people shoot "em" with stick and string?
I took a bow hunting class about 40 years ago for a college PE credit. Compound bows were the thing even then with their now very high 50% let offs and I looked down on the traditional recurve bow folks using a less effective bow.
That was both uneducated and a might narrow minded on my part.
Now I don't even own a compound bow and I regard modern compound bows with their low percentage let offs and tarted up accouterments as not nearly primitive enough, and feel they encourage unethical archers to take shots at excessive ranges.
I hunt with one of a couple well made long bows, which is about as primitive as it gets and arguably harder to shoot well than a recurve. But I also keep my shots close enough that I know I can place the arrow in the kill zone, and I take care to make sure the deer isn't going to string jump.
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Given that I used to shoot competitive service match competition at ranges out to 600 yards, hunting with a rifle stopped being "hunting" and rather was just setting up on a ridge or other suitable hide before dawn and then shooting the chosen animal. I stopped seeing any sport in that knowing I'd bag a nice deer or antelope by 10am and be home by noon. Any "hunting" was limited to pre season scouting identifying likely paths between nightly bedding areas and morning food and water locations.
For me, a bow or a handgun puts the sport back in it as it now requires the skill to also get within reasonable, ethical range of the animal.
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Now…that said I'll still choose a .357 Magnum or 32,000 psi loaded .45 Colt for handgun hunting, or where legal go all in with a 14" Contender in .30-30.
In my former home state of SD handgun hunting of deer and antelope is not legal and that's largely because the ranges tend to be long in open country and the deer tend to be large - 250-300 pounds isn't unusual.
Here in NC handgun hunting is legal during the rifle season with no restriction on barrel length or caliber. Ranges are generally closer and a 90-100 pound deer is pretty common. A 150 pound deer is something to brag about, where we'd let a puny deer, especially a mule deer, like that go grow up some more in SD.
Legal or not, common sense dictates not using a .22 LR handgun as your primary weapon (although NC state law only allows archery hunters to use a .22 LR handgun to dispatch wounded game).
As noted above the deer in eastern NC are small, but even then I'm not inclined to use a 9mm when a 6" .357 Mag or 7 1/2" .45 Colt is a much better choice with greater range and better terminal ballistics than a 5" 9mm pistol.
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Most importantly whether it is a long bow, a handgun or a rifle, ethics are important. That means having the discipline and self control to limit your shots to a range that is appropriate to the weapon and gives you a very high chance of a quick and humane kill.
Unfortunately way too many "sportsmen" today have the asinine and uneducated belief that "if it's legal, it's ethical" demonstrating that they have absolutely no concept of ethical behavior. Idiots like that are why hunting regulations have to get ever more restrictive to compensate for people who lack ethics and or common sense or lack the ability to properly regulate their own behavior
A humane kill generally isn't a drop them on the spot shot as even a hit in the upper portion of the heart or the large arteries above it still leaves enough oxygenated blood in the brain and body for about 10 seconds of useful consciousness and it's not uncommon for a deer to run about 50 yards before it collapses. A hit in the more muscular and more self sealing lower chambers of the heart can allow a deer to run about 100 yards before it goes down.
In either case, and especially with a less than perfect hit, the ethical thing to do is to cool your jets for 15 minutes to allow it to quickly bed down, stay down, and stiffen up so that it won't get back up and run when you start tracking it and approach it.
If you are not in an area where you are willing to track it, don't shoot in the first place. Period. Full stop.
I've encountered more than my share of slob hunters unwilling to track game who then try to insist they missed, when the animal was clearly hit (usually badly). In addition to the derisive look they get when I go track it down, they make the "never hunt with this slob again" list.
Someone taking a 90 yard shot with a 9mm handgun would just immediately make that list.
