I think the primary difference between ‘baiting’ and planting a plot is that baiting, generally, creates an unnatural feeding instinct in the deer herd. Supplemental feeding out of troughs is the same thing. You take a wild animal which nature has created to walk around the forest and fields and nip and nibble it’s way through life, making use of what natural forage is appropriate for a given time of year. No where in nature does corn spill regularly from a metal drum. Acorns my fall from trees, for a while, but when they are gone they are gone until next season and the deer finds something else to eat. A planted plot, although man made, planted and maintained, mimics the old fields lost to pine plantation and the like. They certainly aren’t as important in places where large agricultural fields already exist as they are for people hunting thick forest areas. It’s plants growing from the soil, like any number of other growing things deer would normally nibble. Standing corn is also in a more or less natural presentation. Deer find it and feed when the corn is ready until it’s gone. Then move to another browse.
Baiting deer, with a recurring food source presented in a way unknown in the rest of their environment is not unlike encouraging bears to frequent your trash can. It isn’t good for the bears and isn’t really helping the deer.