Because many of us go to the park to enjoy NATURE and get away from technology. I leave my cell phone, iPad, iPod and other goodies in the car for a reason. Leave your drone at home.....
I appreciate and respect that.
But I do want to offer this on the whole technology thing: I'm a nature photographer, so naturally I'm bringing
that technology (camera, tripod, sliders / panoramic / time-lapse devices, laptops for control, etc.). If I'm in the back-country long enough, I have power solutions such as large battery storage and solar panels.
And I pack a lot of that stuff on the trail, off into the wilderness and find a vantage point that will allow me to capture a nice shot that I like to sometimes consider to be fine art.
Just ask any Ansel Adam's fan about the great lengths he went to getting his often-heavy photographic platforms in hard to reach places. Modern day photographers (Art Wolfe) bring entire crews, with equipment on pack-animals, that include bringing power solutions for sometimes weeks.
For me, the UAV is an aerial tripod. I can put that camera in places that my ground-based tripod can't be.
I find it sad that if I really wanted to photograph that place from that POV, I would have the large burden getting permission -- larger than that required for all of the other nuisances mentioned in this thread, most of which are much noisier and invasive and require no special permissions at all.
And in some cases, it is simply prohibited at all times (no chances for even special permits). Many of those cases are understandable (Yellowstone over geysers, Painted Hills or any other location over fragile landscapes, etc.), but there are plenty of examples that are not that clear.
Chris
PS: Photography / UAVs aside: As for leaving the cell phone in the car, you must not hike that much. Avid hikers carry them for it's GPS capabilities in addition to it having a camera, plus hiking apps with maps (that also use the GPS functionality, even out of cell range). I also have a portable / dedicated GPS device, which is another example of technology designed for use in wilderness areas. Let's not be so quick to hop on "STAY OFF THE GRID IN NATURE AS INTENDED" bandwagon or be mistaken for a luddite (I'm not wielding that term to be insulting -- it's just the right word for extreme anti-tech stances).
Then there's the cell-phone towers in national parks -- there are valid cases of some people that NEED cell coverage (doctors, emergency personnel on call, certain government officials). There's LOTS of push-back against the installation of those towers, but it mostly comes from other people telling ME what I am not supposed to do with my cell phone (which is not invasive to their enjoyment of nature in the least bit).