I too use the boas, in my snow boarding boots as well as my wading boots. Yes, I've had all the said problems, I've also snapped them a few times and replaced them (probably because I've been fishing about 200+ days a year lately, go figure), but still love them, mainly just as SilverDoc said, after an 8 hr day it's nice to just pop them off. And just like my snow board boots, I like to occasionally adjust them tighter, especially after they've been soaked for a while it's easy to just give them a couple quick turns to tighten. Yea, they might be a pain to replace, but it's not that hard and I always keep a spare boa system in my pouch, downside they're not very cheap. Just my 2 cents