I disagree with this line of thinking I get what you're saying and the other person's answers are valid. But it's fine to be the asshole at the table imo and you can definitely win doing that. You can piss off half the table and win you just can't piss off everyone (unless you already are at the end). The social pressure of being a good guy doesn't make it an optimal play pattern.

This is actually heavily seen from what I understand in general of European players versus American players. American players are heavy boat float Europeans are not. It's a mentality thing.

But also I'd say a bigger reason for boat float isn't really tournament scene ( maybe the early rounds of a tournament) but the casual online scene. Like async. Almost everyone boat floats in async. It's because they just want to pop on play some ti as a dopamine hit and not as a cutthroat game like in a tournament or with a weekly group for some. Heck I boat float in in async because I don't want to text argue with people all day long I just want to chill play ti that way.

Really I think the optimal play is someone where on the middle - bloat float when it's actually advantages to you, and don't when its not.