I totally get it. Those two things can be true.
Regarding Tulare Lake, it represented like 1/20, at most, of the land currently under cultivation in the SJ Valley, and that’s just one region of the Central Valley that came under reclamation control. We could absolutely remove all the dams and let the water flow again (although there is waaaay less of it, and you would be consigning every little town in the region, and a few cities, to doom), but that would also cut off most of the country’s food supply and a major source of hydroelectric power for the region.
My wife is from Fresno, her family arrived in the Auberry/North Fork area in the 1880’s. Her grandfather, dad and uncles all drove big rigs in that area during the hydroelectric projects and the big logging years. They’re as committed to that zone as anyone, and even they are seeing the writing on the wall