I think all of us develop our own personal theories as we work in our gardens in our climates and soils.
I think what I am seeing in your photos, Cindi, is not fertilizer burn, but that is possible, but water stress due to an inefficient root system. Of course, I may be wrong.
I do think there is a place for chemical fertilizers. I don't think it has to be just one or the other. Organic fertilizers take time and heat to break down to be available for the plant and soil to use. Chemical fertilizers, if used properly can be more readily available to both the soil and the plant without harm to either.
Please remember when I started this garden, my soil was truly dead soil. There was NO plant organic material in the soil, so there was no active soil bacteria to break down any organic fertilizers. I had to use chemical fertilizers and to build the soil so that I could move towards using more organic fertilizers.
One practice I have followed from the very beginning was to water the plants very deeply the day before I fertilized the plants. Then both the plants and their root systems were fully hydrated before I applied liquid fertilizer to the area under the rose canopy. Nitrogen, the element that causes the most fertilizer burn and the most damage to soil organisms, does not adhere to soil particles. The plant will take up as much as nitrogen as it needs and the excess leaches through the soil with subsequent waterings.
Over the years, as my soil has become more alive, I have been able to use fertilizers with lower numbers, but I doubt if I will ever be able to have rich enough soil to give them up completely as the plants use up the organics quickly and the heat of my summers seem to cook them quickly, too.
It's also easier to feed lightly with a chemical fertilizer because you know exactly what you are giving a plant.
That's my take.
