I agree with the OP and there are a number of reasons for this. Here's an example.
When you are spin fishing with spoons, spinners, crankbaits etc you are imitating bait fish swimming through the water. With this presentation the line strength used is not very important. When i used to spin fish i basically used 10 lb line everywhere i fished. For the vast majority of Alberta fish 10 lb line is more than enough to handle them even with a strong current on a river. Combine this with a general all purpose rod which most spin fishermen use then you should be able to overpower most fish to shore.
In fly fishing the line strength and line diameter is more important. When fishing dry flies or nymphing the line used (tippet) needs to compliment the flies weight to achieve a natural presentation. Because of this guys will fish 3x,4x,5x,6x and sometimes 7x tippet (the break strength ranges from 8lb to 2.5lb). In addition on a typical fly leader you will have different lines of different strengths tapering downward, the knots used to tie these lines together will reduce the line strength even more. Now lets not forget about the hook sizes. Imitation for many of the bugs in water are tied on 20x hooks or smaller, which is much smaller than any hook I've seen spin fishing, with small hooks it becomes more difficult making a good hook set and keeping it set. And finally combine this with a light fly rod then the fly fishermen loses a lot advantage over the fish. The fly fishermen has to slowly play the fish delicately to avoid break offs. When the fish has more time in the water to move around, jump, shake the likeness of it unsetting the hook and getting away is much higher.
Of course the scenario I illustrated is just a hypothetical example of why just to make a point clear. Some if not all of the cases described will become a factor when fly fishing.
You are probably thinking why would someone would want to use a fly rod over a spinning rod. In many cases a fly setup will out fish a spin setup and vice versa. It really depends on the situation and the species. I feel fly fishing is more about the process than the result and for me personally I've had a lot more success fly fishing for Salmonidae than using spinning gear.
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