Poor choice of language in some of the foregoing posts if I may say so. Nobody has been pontificating, in my opinion. The topic drifted from the lovely photos to how they were taken and then a query on the birds being “launched” from a high tower.
As I see it, there are many types of shooting, such as shooting for the pot, shooting for sport (clays or game) and trophy shooting.

The object of shooting for the pot derives from an economic need to put as much food as possible on the table at the lowest possible cost i.e. cartridge count. Nothing wrong with that, but it means periodically shooting game in a way that would be frowned upon by a sporting shooter, whose needs/objectives are different, e.g. most driven shoots forbid ground game.

The object of shooting game for sport is to have an exemplary day in the field, achieving some challenging shots, enjoying how well a dog works or how a team of beaters puts birds over a line of Guns.

The object of shooting clays is to break as many targets as possible and have the highest possible score (kill ratio.)

The object of trophy shooting is to take an animal in its prime, with specific attributes.

There inevitably is some crossover, for example a pot shooter often will give a bird a sporting chance. Correspondingly, shooting birds released from a high tower is not in my view giving them a sporting chance.
Where the problem lies – and I believe that this is going to be a bigger issue on this side of the pond than in the US – is where the cheque-book rules the shooting ethic. On a driven shoot the body count can be at a level that is, in my opinion, unacceptably high. This occurs when someone with a big bank account buys the right to kill a huge number of birds. Yes, it can be argued that the birds are being harvested, but at that quantity they could be processed like free-range chickens. Trophy hunting is somewhat similar, particularly when the prizes are “bought” by the licence to kill rules in Third World countries. To me it is a little like comparing the guy who goes out and buys a classic car in concours condition with the guy who has restored his own. One has no idea what a distributor cap is, the other can, by feel, turn it the right amount when the timing needs to be advanced. Both are quite entitled to their enjoyment, but I know the one whose company I would most enjoy and for whom I would have more respect.

Km