I think barbless hooks are a bit like training wheels. They might help you learn to keep the fish on at first, but once you learn how to land the fish properly you don't need the crutch. I'm saying this as someone who has always (and this has only been maybe seven or eight years) fished with flies having the barbs mashed down. You can land just as many fish without a barb as with, it just adds ten more minutes to the learning curve I never rode a bicycle with training wheels either, though. I guess I think it's generally better to learn it the complete way (even if it takes longer) than to learn it twice.