Without wanton waste laws people would still be cutting off just an elk head and leaving behind everything else saying it's not worth the hassle.They are analogous to hogs, as non-native varmints that are really nothing more than a pest. IMO the value they now have to landowners as a “poor man’s sheep” is not a positive thing.
As with big boar hogs, some folks take the meat but most don’t mess with it. I can’t say how it tastes, but I can deduce that it must not be very good since most don’t fool with it.