John,
I agree with you about better presentation of a supple furled leader. My leader journey led me to an assumption that the main purpose of the first, and in my case, the only 5 ft section of the furled leader, is tapered to turn over the fly. In my view, my furled leader is only an extension of the tapered fly line. This is probably due to the fact that I am not a great caster and anything that helps me get a good loop is paramount. The suppleness I look for is in the tippet. I fish trout fish the Driftless in Wisconsin and my one leader will suit me in all my presentations. When I cast, I assume that the fish will see my 5 ft furled leader so when I cast I try to only make my tippet land close upstream. I vary my tippet for the different presentations. For small dries, I will tie on about 3 ft of 4X and tapper to 3 ft of 6X so technically I am fishing a 12 ft leader. When I nymph for trout in riffles I tie on about 3 ft of 4X and place the indicator on the leader in front of the tippet ring. The floating leader lets me know along with the indicator possible drag issues. The leader becomes a sighter when high sticking. When I throw streamers, I tie on 3X to the depth I want to fish. It is very possible that I fish all 4 ways with flies varying from size 20 to size 8 on a driftless spring creek and by varying my tippet can can accommodate how I have to fish by using only one type of leader. The convenience of not having to change my leader has a big influence on my choice of leaders. I hope this makes sense to you. My last guided trip was a drift trip on the Madison. The guide had no knowledge of "furled" leaders so he set up my rod with his preferred double indicator nymph rig. I did learn a new nymphing technique with the double indicator but it was vary similar how I nymph with my furled leader.
Thanks for your input.
caribe