A long standing argument here in the west and the best answer seems to be “it depends.”
The Virginia Range horses are a pretty sorry lot in general. The Pine Nut Range horses are on the whole, beautiful healthy horses. The Flowery Range bands are a mix.
The bands in the Pine Nut Range have been darted for several years with birth control and young mares if not raising a foal will grow to a decent size. The Pine Nut bands also are allowed to exist naturally and there is no inbreeding and some years predators make large inroads into the herds. This year several foals have been taken.
The Virginia Range horses suffer from a lot of “save the horse” people. They also have to traverse major roadways to find food and water.
In addition, a lot of domestic horses have been turned loose in this area, who don’t have the knowledge or the physical ability to make it in the wild.
Nevada has millions of acres in the middle of nowhere where bands could be relocated and left alone. Horses and cows coexist peacefully.
Stopping humane slaughter in the US has created untold problems but has turned into a million dollar industry, rescuing horses for several hundred dollars apiece to people who don’t know what they are doing and pretty much destroying the market for domestic horses.
It depends.
It's encouraging that BLM is taking proactive steps to control reproduction. Is it a pilot program, or is there another reason it hasn't been implemented elsewhere?
But, ultimately, why would somebody pay for a feral animal of unknown origin when well-bred horses are available for under a thousand bucks? In the end it makes no sense at all.