I couldn't agree with you more.
Coyotes are magnificent and are everywhere . Literally everywhere even if we don't know it ..They can live in the middle of Manhattan and hardly a single person know about them...and they do! They've carved out an incredible urban and suburban niche.
Sure pets are at risk but they're there because the food sources are there. It always boils down to food. As horrible as it may sound... domestic cats and small dogs are a food sources...as well as pigeons really any bird, squirrels, chipmunks, deer fawns, mice, rats, moles...just about anything.
In many ways the coyote has become the urban and suburban management plan. They are incredibly discreet and they do a great job keep other populations in check. But with that something needs to keep them in check as well. It's just hard in suburban or urban areas.
Funny, if we go back to the wolf conversation for second...many believe the more recent coyotes incidents we've been seeing is a result of the wolf population... there is a canine pecking order beginning with fox. Coyotes will push fox out of their range and will not tolerate them...and Wolves will push out coyotes and not tolerate them. All about competition for food.
So if you have a wolf population explosion from Arizona/New Mexico all the way up to northern B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan and as far west as western California and Nevada and. as far east as the Great Lakes...where are the coyotes going to get pushed to? California, the south and eastern states.