No not at all. You can simply use a hook clip attached to your lead, its much cheaper. However I have found that they don't always release. I would rather pay the extra and know my £1 carb bait was fishing on the sea bed rather than still connected to the hook clip and never going to catch a fish.
You are right, it is equal but because it’s spread over two sections the force is actually halved and because the mainline is connected to the lead, should the snood snap then the rig is not going to fly off and kill someone. I have never had one fail on me during a cast and I drop down to 15lb snood when I target Plaice.
Fishing Tails I wasn't being critical - I prefer using a lighter hook snood so I tie the rig with the line/snood swivel right up against the pulley swivel so the main line is taking all of the strain of casting.
Fishing Tails It is a bit of a bugger. Took me ages, but just by trial and error I worked out how much line I used on a tucked half blood knot (inch and a half I normally allow) and used that on both the hook and the swivel. It can be a smidgeon out occasionally but the stretch in the line loses that. Hopefully!
In any event you're quite right in what you say - the load is halved however you tie the knot. it's just that I prefer a light hook link purely for bait presentation but I'm not usually after anything too big. Maybe I should say I never catch anything too big. 😟
