Your right Derek leader length & knots used is a bit of a contentious subject but its good to have debate on the subject as there is always something to learn or sometimes reiterate that your doing the right thing (in your eyes anyway).
On leader length for me it purely about the situation, if deepsea fishing I use either a bought wind on leader or I use a long leader tied with an FG knot or a Bimini & Albright, depends on how rough it is & how much time I have to get a line back in the water. In this situation I always have a leader that I have at least 3 or 4 winds onto the real, for me this way it is the thicker mono/FC that will be more abrasion resistant if a big fish decides it wants to go under the boat or tries to take me into bottom structure, 90% of the time I am not casting with this set up or not to far anyway, that's the way I think about it & it suits me.
Inshore fishing using SP's or paternoster rig then a different story again.
I think the FG knot is a cracker & Im even using it on my lite set ups as well for a leader to main line.
I watched this episode on TV & thought while humorous did highlight the breaking strains of different knots & if you don't want to watch it all (& you all should really) then skip through to 12 mins for the FG test.
I have had the exact same thing happen to me, the braid actually breaking before the knot failing!
You cant ask for more than that.
Sure I still use things like uni knots & other knots for line to swivel/hook, loop knots for lures etc but the FG is an amazing leader to main line knot.