When I first started, I fished TLD and Tiagra 50s stand-up. I had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish. I had about 900 yards (2700 feet) of spectra on the reels. I fish a center counsel, and my theory was that I fish no deeper than 2000 feet, so as long as I had a good boat handler, I could never get spooled because even if the fish went straight to the bottom, I could get right on top of him, and have plenty of line. I fished this way for about five years and caught a lot of fish, never getting spooled.
Then I fished larger tackle a couple of nights with some friends. Larger tackle makes everything easier. You do not have to clear your lines for a fish, you do not have to chase (most) fish, and you can get smaller fish in real quick. I fish 30lbs of drag on my big reels. If a fish takes line at 30lbs, you know he is decent, if he takes no drag, you relase the little guy very quickly.
Any hooks that you pull because of the heavy drag you more than make up for because of your increased efficiency. Often the bite turns on out there qucikly, and the bite goes off for about an hour or so. I want to have as many biats in the water during this time as possible. I don't want to waste time clearing lines or chasing a small fish. Also, if you ever fish solo (one of my favorite things on the right night) big tackle is a must.
One of the best things about large bent butt tackle is the ease of checking baits. At the end of the night, I am tired and I would get lazy and not want to check that far ballon on my TLD 50. With the big bent butts, you have much more leverage and this makes it easier to check those baits at the end of the night. Again, this aids in you effiicency as you are not dragging a slashed bait or tangled line because you are too tired to check your baits.
50s are adequate to catch 90% of the fish out there. I agree that when you are starting out, it is fine to fish lighter tackle, get strapped in, and feel the power of these fish. This is a lot of fun. My first sword I ever caught was on a TLD 50, stand up. It took me about 45 minutes, and the fish was only 80lbs. It was January 6, 2001. It was cold outside, but by the end of the fight I was dripping in sweat. I was addicted from then on. But once you do that for a while, go with the big guns and your efficeincy will dramatically increase. Now I will catch (and release) an 80lbs fish in under 20 minutes. This is not as fun as getting him on a stand-up 50, but I will be spending much more time fishing for that big boy.