I understand what you’re saying. We’ve developed methods and materials that have facilitated (arguably, made inevitable) our massive population growth.

We’ve taught ourselves how to wring more out of the sponge, but that doesn’t mean the sponge can hold more.

You caught my drift, though: we are overpopulated - whether certain segments of society recognize it or not - because on balance we use technology to extract more than we use it to replenish. As you note, that’s unsustainable. Carrying capacity is the average population an ecosystem can sustain given the resources available - not the max. It reflects our understanding of boom and bust population cycles. Unsustainable rates of population growth - booms - are always followed by busts.

We could feasibly increase carrying capacity by using technology to, for example, develop and implement large-scale regenerative farming techniques, which would replenish soils over time while still feeding humanity enough to maintain current or slowly decreasing population levels. We could also use technology to assist in the restoration, protection and expansion of marine habitats such as coral reefs and mangrove and kelp forests. Such applications of technology might halt and then reverse the insane declines in biodiversity we’re witnessing daily. Unless and until we take such measures (or someone or something does it for us), it’s as if we’re living above our means on ecological credit and borrowed time.