haven't been out in the sound recently, but yes i used to bonk a few of them out of frustration.

i think it's more of a politically correctness thing to not kill them, since there are so many of these things, and not many people fish for them intentionally(not sure about commercials)

now i think it's too much effort to smack them over the head or stick them with the bait knife, than to just cut the leader. i believe it's an image thing, like banning gaff hooks on all species except dogs, halibut, and albacore

[edit] anybody remember dogfish derbies back in the day? i think it was before my time, but i've heard of constests being held to see how many you could bring in, and that people would drag a dinghy behind their fishing boat just to stack up a pile of those little devils