It shouldn't hurt, only thing I would be worried about is getting bit off there from the slight bubble trail it could make. I like to use a long leader so I learned to tie a small knot for the braid to mono connection. When the bite is hot it is quicker to cut a few inches or a foot off and retie than to have to make up a new leader.
What do you consider a long leader? I only bass fish... looks like you do a lot of salt water. But my leaders are never more than 24 inches.
I use braid to mono/fluoro leaders for my wacky rigs and sometimes my soft jerkbaits(flukes) and texas rigged worms. However, I am seriously contemplating going straight fluoro for almost everything now. All the pro's use now is straight flouro for 90% of their applications.
The only time I can think braid is a MUST is when frogging.
Back to the leader discussion... Knot's are so important so I really suggest practicing them on a daily basis while your watching TV or something. I am scared to death of hooking into a 5lber and having a knot fail due to not clinching the knot right or overlapped something and it cuts itself. I am meticulous about my knots and line. So going straight fluorocarbon reduces the chances of knot failure as there will only be one knot compared to 2.