I see two problems:
1) Obviously there isn't enough public wild-land space. We need 2 to 10 times more, especially along the east coast. Let's engage these new converts, temporary or not, to develop large public commitments to more public wild-lands.
2) We're all tourists in our public wild places, and the late-comers pay the same taxes and have just as much right as us longer-term exploiters of the too limited resource.

We all made stupid mistakes when we started out too. If you can't find wild areas and trails that the new-comers haven't figured out how to find yet, I think that puts you in the relative neophyte category too. Personally, I've never understood the appeal of the AT. Why would anyone want to hike for months on a trail where you are running into other people every day!? Isn't a 5 month commitment to a trail worth traveling a few hundred or thousand miles to find a really beautiful and wild place? But hey, to each their own wild.