must admit i have 50lb braid on a shimano multi no problems and 20lb on an abu 5500 again no problems, the big issue though i find is if you get locked into something and decide to pull for a break, with braid your taking one hell of a chance at doing yourself damage if it cuts into you, as has been said bite detection is out of this world, even better if your holding your rod, on merseyside we have a serious ammount of pin whiting upto 6 inches, those feel like 1 pounders and above on braid, i always use it with a shock leader though, sod the problem with the knot, to me 50lb mainline is not enough when your trying to power 5oz and more to the horizon, it also acts as a good rubbing piece as even a clean beach can damage braid
dunno if this will make sense, i loop the shock mono, feed the braid through the mono, spiral up the mono 7 times away from the loop, then down 7 times finally going baqck though the loop in the same direction as the initial line went through, then plenty of spit pull and tease the braid feeding it towards the loop, ideally make sure no lumps appear in the `binding`, pull tight and cut both ends off close, i use the same system joining main line mono to shock leader as well