"That isn't in the manual"
that is real light winds
i have a video somewhere of 2 kiters that got pulled together - pulled totally hook to hook getting both dragged in a death loop - completely stuck the only thing that stopped them was that the non deathlooping kite getting dragged behind filled up with about 150kg of sand slowing them down - to add to that there was a 4wd doing donuts around them on the beach - what a sight!
Sure use your quick release but deathloops can be inherent by kite design - choose your kite carefully. Nothing wrong with launching unhooked too, being confident unhooked is not abad thing.
Another point is that launcher should be checking for bridle wraps etc also.