Oaktree and all,
There is only a cursory relationship between braided and furled leaders. Furled is popular in this forum so, as someone who was an early adapter of braided leader butts (1983) allow a brief tutorial.
Blue Sky, first W.Yellowstone then lower down the Madison valley, had the first braided leaders on these shores. They were already enjoying some burgeoning popularity among French and Spanish fly fishers overseas. The early Blue Sky's were tapered by knotting together different diameter braid but they and Orvis in 1984-5 started having them braided on a multi-filament reduction machine in Europe. At first they were intended to be affixed via a splice in which the tip of the fly line is inserted into the hollow braid 1/2" and locked with a drop of Zap-A-Gap. This proved too much craftsmanship for some customers so Orvis added a loop splice later...at both ends. Frankly, the direct splice is the superior mounting method and, when I buy a new one today, I cut off the loop and splice; In all these years I have NEVER had a single one fail! At the tippet end I make a 12 turn nail knot of appropriate diameter mono, generally around 0X that will yield a symmetrical loop when flexed indicating correct mass mating for energy transfer, then build down to my tippet conventionally with blood knots. Importantly, Orvis braided butts come in line weight designated sizes and my experience has been that if I want that same uniform energy transfer flex profile I need to go up a size. These leaders are optimal for technical dry fly presentations so I use them all but exclusively on #4 and 5-weight lines but I purchase the 6/7- weight size braided butts. They perform as an extension of the taper of the fly line. Free of memory coiling and tapering to a much smaller tip diameter than coated line could be manufactured to, they are an interface from line to a leader butt of relatively fine 0X so control of tippets in excess of 5' lengths are achievable. One can straighten a super long tippet or introduce controlled curves into it with the responsive tip of your rod to achieve superior results in fly placement and drift. Yes, some water can be sprayed off the increased surface area of the braid assisting an angler in developing the good habit of false casting away from the rising trout until prepared to present. There is stretch in the braid too as there is in braided nylon core fly line but we are only using some 6' of braid so control is still very well communicated. Certainly, more angler rigging skill and re-building maintenance is required using a braided system. The rewards are a leader that easily may last two full seasons of solid use or even more and that delivers dry flies with more accuracy and control than any other.
Some may find them too labor intensive but the majority of my regular fishing companions have learned to love and even cherish them when crawling a flush-floating dun pattern against the overhanging bank grass on the Delaware, Henry's Fork or upper Missouri where the big boy sipping in the shadows beneath it are unforgiving critics of long, fly-first, dead drift presentations.
