Well Steven, I've had some of the same thoughts myself. I wish somehow we could keep all those people that shouldnt have herps from having them, without it affecting myself or others who actually do know what they are doing. Rather than a minimum equipment standard, I would prefer a minimum knowledge test. Someone with good experience/knowledge can keep a herp healthly in a pretty basic setup, while someone without a clue could easily kill a herp in a 3000 dollar monster cage. Besides general husbandtry knowledge, people should be required to know what the animal will require as an adult, and how soon adulthood will be. I cant stand seeing someone buy a herp, and then ask what it eats.
As for hoarding, I have always felt that the line between having a collection and hoarding is whether or not you can and do properly care for all of the animals. I do have to constantly monitor myself so that I dont cross that line, as I am often near it- but thats why I dont have red tails, carpet pythons, womas, dumerils, blackthroat monitors, every species of racer...
Many people get tired of caring for a large collection and venture into other areas of the hobby, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the bottom line is, you definitely have to know how much you can handle.

As for garter breeding, I hope that each species will be captive bred in various states. As for an eventual overpopulation of captive bred, well, thats a tough one, not sure what to do with that.