All true except for the hearsay part. The hearsay echos what the biologists are saying - declining fawn recruitment rates on one end and unsustainable excessive doe harvest on the other end is causing a population problem in many areas of the state and if left unchecked it will become a general problem statewide. Thus the reintroduction of limiting either sex days.
I have kept detailed records over the last 17 years of every hunt by every hunter on my property. The analysis of that data confirms what we are seeing live on the ground. Other hunters in our neck of the woods are experiencing the same thing. While the data is anecdotal it does support the central thesis. My experience might be the extreme but it is not localized to just me. There are plenty of others experiencing the same thing and WRD agrees there is a problem for many right now that could become a problem for everybody in the not too distant future.
I'll recheck what I read. But I thought you wrote, "what other hunters in the area are saying."
Then predation and competition for habitat and food sources may play heavily in some cases. Either way it is not the rule for the entire state. Hog and coyote control should be a consideration if that's the case. It still boils down to what the habitat can support, what is taken out of the population, and what is replaced. Deer are everywhere when you don't want them.