Sounds to me like you folks are not tying flies that will hold up to a few redears or bluegills. Both of these fish will grind up a fly. I double whip finish flies for these fish. I don't think my tying lacks anything either. I might have learned a trick or two about keeping flies together over the course of the last 50 - 60 thousand flies tied over the past 50 years or so.

I never use the snap. I don't have any thread to snap. Take two or three turns to start the thread and thenn pull the thread until the tag is short enough to cover with the thread base. Zero waste.

Jerry