I'll use whatever is the more appropriate, or whatever I'm required to by local rules. I've long held the belief that whether a hooked is barbed or barbless is of minor significance compared to whether the angler using them knows his/her backside from their elbow. I've seen plenty of anglers that don't carry any form of disgorger. I've seen plenty of anglers that obviously don't know how to unhook a fish properly, barbed or not, disgorger or not. The only thing I will concede to barbless, is that the same individual using barbless should cause less damage to a fish when unhooking.
Sadly, there are an awful lot of utter numpties that don't fish often enough to come close to being competent. These plonkers, that have no idea how to hook a fish, are responsible for quite a bit of damage. I've seen it on a few occasions now where "anglers" think that simply pulling on a hook/hooklink is an appropriate way to unhook a fish. A practiced angler can have a barbed hook whipped out, with minimal damage caused, in the fraction of the time, than it takes some folks.
It's very similar to the lowest common denominator factor that has seen a few rivers/river sections closed to fishing. Sensible competent anglers rarely have any problems. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to drag everyone up to a decent standard. Far easier just to ban things. Just about every ban you care to mention is down to the lowest common denominator factor. Sensible people, with a decent standard of angling competence, rarely need rules to maintain a fishery and the fish in it.
