1 fish at 36" and the ocean would be over run with bass in a few years.
While this woud be a great winfall for us fishermen its not a necessary measure, IMO.
The 36" size was gradually arrived at to protect a specific year class of fish (1982). It was an emergency measure by all definitions. We're not in need of an emergency measure right now.
People may forget or weren't around for it, but the limit started at 24" and got progressively larger until it hit 36". It went something like 24-28-30-33-36 until the stocks were deemed restored by the managers.
There is, however, plenty of unnecessary killing generated by allowing the recs 2 fish per day right now.
1 fish at 28".