Good questions...

FL LMB do tend to be more hook shy, but they do have their advantages as well and IMO their hook shyness is a bit overplayed, but then again I am not nearly as experienced with FL LMB as many of the members on here.

A lot of stocking recommendations are based on goals. Even "standard" stocking rates vary greatly. I know Greg has been doing some work with stocking higher rates of BG and from his results, his stocking plans are working. If you're trying to grow trophy bass, he's probably giving you some darn good advice...

Usually when trying to grow trophy bass, you stock more forage and less bass. Generally when you do this, you do make the fishing harder. But if you goal is to grow bass into double digit weights, you're gonna be hard pressed to also have a fast action fishery as well.

A fish is a fish, but the quality may not be there... A great example of this is the Condello Strain BG that forum member Bruce Condello produced through several generations of selective breeding. If you compared his top 10% fish to you average run of the mill BG, I think you will find your chance at producing a trophy BG would be much better. Also, some hatcheries don't bring in new genetics regularly... This can lead to inbreeding, and inbreeding can lead to undesirable results...

Just my opinion and observations though...