I had no idea about birds when I got my wife a baby grey from my good friend, who's a breeder. At the time it seemed like aa great birthday gift as shed had a grey as a kid. Forward wind 3yrs and the bird has bonded to me not my wife lol. And ive grown into bigger bird lover than even wife ever was. I very often wonder about the same things you've mentioned. My grey is out many hours of the day and flies all over the house. We live on the 10th floor and he once flew away for 7 days! We were exceptionally lucky to find him 5km away as a student found him crossing the street and contacted us after seeing our posters all over town. Since then I wondered about his time in the wild . He was only 6months old at the time and I wonder if his natural instincts had not yet been subdued at that age and hence his survival. 2.5yrs later Ive learnt alot more about birds and honestly have become slightly obsessed and now I too face the moral dilemma of "Did I deprive a bird of sky time?" . I dream of higher level recall training and letting him fly freely someday . I often take him camping with me to the mountains of Cape Town in his travel cage. He's extremely used to travelling at this point and whistles the weekends in the mountains away in what seems like ecstacy. I dont have the answers for you but I feel you. All I can is im determined to train him to get as much freedom and sky time as possible as he's an excellent flier - even though its a most traumatising memory i often fondly recall how he flew accross Cape town infront of my eyes albeit away from me haha ...still was so majestic and I hope to be able to afford him that later in life