Could be, Barry, I used primarily Teva hiking sandals in those years, and I don't doubt that sandal tech has come a long way since then. Still, sandals are by definition open shoes, and will always require some degree of offsetting effort to avoid trail hazards that a boot wearer can safely ignore (around here the main one is nettles, I guess). Whether that effort is worth the weight savings or not I imagine will depend greatly on both the hiker and the terrain.

My biggest addiction these days though is warm, dry feet, something I was never able to achieve with sandals anyway, so I'll be sticking to my 10-year-old GoreTex hunting boots for a while longer.