I think that's a good point. I saw that article you posted on the bunker. I can tell you this, we had lots of bunker in NJ this late spring with no bass under them. There were times when I took a run from Barnegat Inlet to Monmouth Beach. We would find dozens of pods of bunker, thousands in a pod, that had no bass on them. Our best success was finding the smaller pods that were isolated and picking a bass or 2 from underneath.
What that says to me is that even though there are less bunker, as the article you posted claims, there are even less bass and bluefish to eat that forage. I remember this happening last year as well. I don't have a recollection of it beiing that bad 10 years ago either.
I don't have an answer here. I do feel there are a lot of good questions raised in this thread. In my view we need more accurate numbers to be sure.