Yes I hear you, days of knocking on doors is harder now than ever, but still possible.
I blame law suits on a lot of that loss to, seems some folks, like to sue when they get hurt, wanting a land owner to pay cause they did something stupid or??
And sadly, court systems reward some of them too, making land owners shy to say yes, then add in many slob hunters, leaving trash or stealing, or worse shooting farmers live stock or equipment. That's a big one up my way, and caused a ton of farmers to stop letting folks hunt.
and then add in they can lease it and get paid, and its not easy no more LOL
modern age , the world wide too that last into more places than anything LOL

limited hunting time, is always hard, but again, the trick to me to beat crowds on public lands is hunt the early season, the rut is what brings the crowds, or gun season, there hard to get away from others on public lands, that's for sure.
but it can be done, and you can even use crowds to your advantage at times, use them to steer deer to you, done it many times over the yrs!
At some point, I look at costs to lease, and then look at full outfitted hunts, at some point, a outfitted hunt might be cheaper, and you can get prime spots, food plots and so on?
not have to do the dirty work too. Even though, that work I enjoy on private lands I hunted, building plots and setting up cams/stands, and more or less using my skills to get me on deer. Where an outfitter? Does most of that.
BUT, many outfitters lease lands too, some for a week or so. So, if you know of any in area's you like, you can try asking them to lease you a section, for a few weeks a yr or?
I've done that before, in Missouri, where I leased a thousand acres. And a house for 2 weeks,, did a week with the bow and then a week with the rifle, as its a.2 Buck state, cost me 1500 for.the 2 weeks, but, was OK with it, killed 2. Bucks, so?