These are fair comments. My personal opinions are below:

If people choose to be arrogant, other people may choose to be upset. In MR, caves have padlocks on them, the cliffs do not but are public assets. Bush walkers leave huts and trails (Bib track), mountain bikers leave trails and ruts, golfers erase hectares of nature to create golf courses, firshermen annihilate fish, climbers leave bolts and chalk. I see no reason why climbers should be traceless in their activity, clearly this is not how the world works. Every outdoor activity has some impact. I think the key is (a) think ahead so as not to outright upset other people and (b) if one particular pressure group sees its objectives as superior to other, one needs to defend oneself. Hence CAWA exists.

By the way, there is no blanket ban on bolting in Oregon wilderness as the ranger assers. All areas are managed individually. And to compare climbing with vandalising, ie. damaging for the sake of damaging, is the sort of emotional language that speaks more about the writer than about the issue.