Id venture more pressure out west is due to more non-resident hunters. Seems more folks are willing to pay the big fees and travel out west for a chance at western big game compared to 30 years ago. Not sure that equates to more hunters as much as just hunters willing to travel which equates to higher hunting pressure.
Most states saw a brief uptick in hunting activity during covid years, but even that has curtailed in the years since. Overall, hunter numbers are down, and they continue to decline.

DE deer are starving... so much unchecked development destroying farmland, habitat, and natural food sources, it's a pity.

I was coming here to say this, but chucky beat me to it. Specifically, the area around Monroe.
I also saw several big herds of large deer this summer in the area surrounding Frankenmuth and up in to Saginaw.

You gotta be part mountain goats to hunt the glorified goats they call deer down there in WV lol . Ain't a lot of flatland there that isn't next to one of the bigger river.

https://www.deerhuntingguide.net/us-hunting-statistics.html

Underrated as far as what?I've never hunted another state other than Michigan so I have nothing to compare here,but I have no problem here in upper Michigan.

Wisconsin can't have very good deer hunting because they have had CWD for like over 20 years........at least MDC keeps telling me CWD will ruin our herd...........now how can this be.

Sounds like the entire concept of long range hunting in a nutshell.

lots of big deer in the southern 1/2 of WI. Trouble is majority of land is private and off limits to hunting.
I know one young man who is very successful. He hunts a small (less than 5 acres) place next to a city on one side and a state park on the other.
Lots of residential stuff all around him.
Very few hunt this urban situation.