Both of your opinions are formed based on local traditions and customs that you grew up with and learned from friends, family, and your community. I hope you realize that just because you have your own opinions, they are not and should not be universal.
LMB/SMB are sunfish, and every bit as tasty as their "panfish" relatives. In parts of the country dominated by those ridiculous tournaments, bass are put on some ridiculous pedestal as "catch and release only".
I live in Minnesota, and to me bass are an eater fish. Not all fishermen agree on whether a particular species should be an eater, a C&R only, or somewhere in between kind of fish.
To put another "for example" out there, plenty of midwesterners consider northern pike to be an "eater" fish. However, despite being delicious, I release 99.99% of the northerns that I catch, and never keep anything over 3lbs or so. To me, it is a great sin to keep a big northern, they are slow growing and top predators, and it greatly affects an ecosystem to remove the largest of the top predators.
However I don't belittle those who consider northerns to be an eater, particularly if they are proud of their 3 year old catching a fish for dinner.