Here is what it boils down to. The time honored standard measurement of a fish has been its weight not length. 99% of bass tournaments are won and lost by the weight of a fish not the length. At the bottom or on the back of old pictures was always the weight of a fish. Rarely was the length mentioned. All fish records, whether World or State or what have you, are by weight. There are no records that I know of that are judged by length over weight.
But now since we can't catch one of that weight, we want to change the standard of measurement. We want to move it from the weight of the fish, which is now apparently minuscule and hardly worth mentioning, to the length of the fish. Because we can catch long fish we just can't catch fat fish. So let's change the standard.
And it all circles back to, can the Ozark streams produce the world class fish that you all salivate over? If not, simply change the standard of measurement.