"By that measure, every firearm and shotshell improvement going back to pinfire is a crutch."
Exactly, untold thousands of waterfowl were killed with percussion and early cartridge guns. People made a living killing waterfowl with them. The Shotgun reached it's peak over 100 years ago. Making ammo and chokes so you can kill a bird at 50 yards because you can't get them to come in to 30 yards or you don't have the patients to wait for them to come in is a crutch.
I can still kill ducks just fine with my muzzle loading shotgun, it shoots the same load as my cartridge shotgun, it is just slower to load.
