Hi Travis,
I am yet to see the article.
Having not used one before, my first thoughts would be that it would only really be useful for really big fish - and then, how long do you want to be fiddling around trying to get this on, when a pair of careful gloved hands could assist in the landing at a fraction of the time involved??? Smaller fish tend to go ballistic at the boatside particularly if green - putting a tail rope on could get very timely - not even worth it for a small fish?
There doesn't seem to be any perfect solution at the moment - my preferred method is to simultaneously lift the fish out of the water by both the tail and lure ensuring that all the weight is supported and the fish is lifted horizontally (this can be very dangerous with swinging hooks - so caution is advised). Usually the bigger fish are so tuckered out, this isn't a problem. I would hate to be on the end of a swinging hook and 40kg GT - ripped flesh could be the only result. I concede that lifting a bigger 40kg+ fish can be very difficult, but at the moment I don't see a better solution and it then becomes a sort of lesser of two evils scenario.
I continually rack my brain to come up with a superior and safer solution, including which others have mentioned before - an 'environet' style sling. It then becomes a trade-off between wasting time with a big fish at the boat, debating whether or not a fish should be taken from the water, practicality of such a device etc...
My other big concern with the tail rope is burning/scarring. Some kind of protective sleeve would be required to avoid causing physical damage as well as removing protective slimes.
Just my opinion.
Luke