As a general point I agree with you, but in this case my lifejacket is built to carry someone who weight up to 300lbs and I weight about 210. So my 2 lbs of survival gear makes no real difference to my ability to float. With this design of lifejacket I cannot tell at all that I am carrying anything. I just finished a 10 day canoe trip and it worked great. Different lifejacket/pdf designs can make a real difference.