I no longer endorse this post, which argued that honey is basically fine to eat ethically, to the degree that I chose to delete it entirely.

Protein/dairy tradeoffs/substitutions make more sense: honey/syrup/agave seem less necessary. For example, waffles, pancakes, french toast, etc still taste good without much of those, and honey/syrup/agave all seem too sugary to be healthy. Since they seem less necessary, your reasoning makes more sense to me as a case against honey alternatives rather than a case for honey