@junebug:
Simple question trying to answer first with a conter question and a long not so simple answer behind:
What are the benefits of depower? (which is the only thing you lose when going unhooked)
Depower while riding can be quite overrated, as the main profit I see is in gusty conditions and for high jumps, as in both cases you need fast changes of angle of attack.
(For sure for the sport, high depower kites since 2006 saved many lives and turned it from a serious action sport to everybodys disney land pus ... I better stop here
)
So following this if you don't want to jump high and you have constant wind then depower is less important than most may think.
Coming back to the question:
The benefit of unhooking are mainly two things:
1. high control of towing point position and
2. control of riders distance to the kite
both in the range of around 2 m (your arm span)
But what does this mean for the ride?
1. Being hooked you just have pretty low control of towing point of just a few cm under effort when pushing the bar against the depower rope, which you need and use for example to start and end some rotations, especially in jumps.
Being unhooked you reach here another dimension, so if you need some momentum for a turn, it can have a meter of lever not cm.
2. If you are following a wind wave you often have to quick change your riding line faster than any kite can react, if you are hooked it just means on one side the kite will pull you of your natural line or you run into slack lines.
When being unhooked you have those up to 2 m of play range to once hold the bar over your head and then pulling it down to your foot constantly changing distance to the kite to allow the kite to fly its line while you are surfing yours indeependently. This picture from the shown video should show both effects I mean and what you just can't do being hooked
More free feel is just (foil)surfing for sure, but I don't think as much as many may think
Being hooked on a wave feels like being jammed, similar horrible as riding a foil with a stabilisator