Started this on another forum and its proved very popular and is clearly very educational. Manufacturers please pay attention, we don't need a hook, if you make your chicken loop release failproof.
I ride mainly surfboards. 80kg wet even if the rope slider break I do not lose my kite and can ride back because the leash is attached to the spreader and I ride with it in the badly named suicide mode.
If the ring is tied to the middle of the rope slider it feels a lot like a hook, but without any possibility of coming unhooked accidentally.
Most riders never unhook. Accidental unhooking causes many accidents and near misses. Hooks are easily able to catch bar ends and rear lines and cause death looping. Hooks are for windsurfing, and only needed for advanced level riders who actually do unhook for freestyle or waveriding.
Here are a few of my set ups, but I am currently only using the RE Elite carbon.