Landowners have every right to give access or not give access. The ability to get a gratis tag is a nice perk for land owners (some guys say no no matter what and can still get a gratis) that allow sportsmen the ability to recreate on their land.
And it would be their choice to do whatever they choose with their land in a state that is over 90% private. Gratis tags hopefully keep more private land open to sportsmen. I guess as a sportsman the possibility of losing access to that many acres is something I don’t want to risk.
Without the ability to receive gratis tags (deer is all we apply for) I, along with others, would probably be more stingy about access, but that’s my personal opinion I guess. I consider a gratis tag a small reward for allowing sportsmen’s to recreate on my private land that I put effort to create habitat on and help improve.