haha, I'm overmatched in a casting discussion.
I did not mean to imply that a tailing loop was beneficial. Merely not always exceptionally harmful. I was just playing devils advocate.
Anyway, I do try to collapse my leader in certain situations. But:
1. Not in all situations, obviously. With nymphs and streamers I usually attempt a tuck cast, which is straightening it out and then some!
2. I wouldn't say the tailing loop particularly helps me or hurts me doing what I want to do at the end. I merely shock and drop at the end of the forward stroke, or employ a slack line cast, or a tuck cast, and none of this has anything to do with what my backcast looked like! It's just that if a tailing loop prevents me from straightening the leader out, I'm not gonna be particularly upset about it, because quite often I'm not really trying to straighten it out.
At least for me, tangles and knots are the drawbacks of throwing a tailing loop. I get em occasionally. They're annoying. I would not and do not intentionally want to do it. But for me, maybe my tailing loop is not severe enough, but it's nothing more than an annoyance. It doesn't ruin my fishing. I change tippet lengths often enough that the occasional wind knot is quickly spotted and quickly removed, or with brookies I just choose to live with it and it causes no harm. I hook my own line up higher once or twice an hour, and it takes about 10 seconds to unhook.
Maybe once every few outings I get a more serious tangle from it, and that takes about 5 minutes out of my day.
So it would be to my benefit to fix it, and I should. But only a slight benefit, it's not like it was the bane of my existence. I have no desire to compete in casting championships. Merely want to fish effectively.