re: Baitcasting setup for redfish?

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Why not?

It's obviously water-quality dependant and in ultra clear water I have used leaders, but most of the time in south LA I've never felt the need for one unless throwing a topwater, and only then because braid tangles on topwater trebble hooks like crazy.

I could see the argument for it if you were throwing artificials and working them slow, but even then I've had 0 issues catching when tying direct to braid. Popping corks I use a mono or fluoro leader under the cork FWIW.

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For a number of reasons. First and foremost, spooky redfish in clear water are not going to eat a bait with braid tied directly to it. Secondly, there are very few knots that reliably do not slip when tying braid straight to a hook eye. Depending on how hard you set your hooks, you will break fish off with no leader. Braid also does not have nearly the ability to withstand abrasion as mono or fluoro, so if you're deepwater jigging rocks or structure, you're pretty likely to lose fish.

I'm sure plenty people catch fish by tying braid straight to a jighead, but it's bad practice. Too many reasons to use a leader. A double uni takes 20 seconds to tie.