I'm with you, if you have any opening in the line it would just soak up water. If you use a nail knot instead of a loop and you ever cut the leader off and replaced it without gluing it shut you would have an area where you would waterlog the tip of your floating line. If you had a new perfect line, maybe it would do it, but I like the idea of cleaning my line with some kind of fly line cleaner / treatment instead.

I use a stripping basket to keep my line away from sharp edges and not stepping on it. The basket has been great for fishing from the boat and for fishing on rocky shores. The idea of no shoes and I think that I would stick a hook into my foot.