Well, I'm not a CO resident yet. LOL But once I am, I will gladly buy my small game and fishing license regardless of the big game draw.
I'm aware it's all a choice. Maybe they are thinking that rather than just charge a blanket (useless to the hunter) fee for a PP, they are "giving" the hunter something they can use. To which I would ask why they didn't include the bear license. That seems like a no-brainer to me.
I would have had more respect for the decision had they charged a simple fee that was deducted from the cost of the license if you were drawn. So, $100 to apply then if you're drawn, the license is reduced by $100 when you pay for it. If you don't pay, then you still get charged the $100, but no PP. That would make too much sense though. LOL
Like I said, I wrote hunting regs for years at a more local level, and I understand the challenge of getting everything exactly right. You can never please everyone, ever. They will get all the feedback (and more) that they want on this change this year and hopefully will adjust things for next year. If they just added the damn $100 bear tag as a qualifying license, I would be all-in since I've considered adding the bear tag every year already. And frankly WOULD have just bought one this year in order to apply, had they not come up with the stupid small game license requirement. That just pi$$es me off. It was too easy to get that right.
BUT, it does help me make my decision on how to approach my tags this year. Off to the leftover list again for me.