Sockeye DO NOT BITE, so if flossing is just glorified snagging then we might as well just ditch the fishery (joking). Seriously though, the Kenai river red fishery used to be treble hooks and lujons. Snagging was blatant and tickets were in abundance. Over the years we developed more humane methods to catch these bruisers. Yes it could be construed as snagging, but 9 times out of ten I hook the fish in the mouth, enjoy an unbelievable battle on a 9-weight, and go home with a smile. Not a big deal, the rest of the year I fish for steelhead by conventional means. But for 2 weeks out of the year, I let down my guard and floss, big deal. It's fun, the mortality rate is virtually nil and I get a few beauts to pickle.
Now maybe if we embraced the act of flossing here, people learned the right way and the wrong way, and we went to single barbless hooks, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Most people would strike out anyway so mortality wouldn't be a huge issue, but at least it would get treble hooks out of the hands of the blatant snaggers.