IME
This is the kind of regulation that is put in place when the game wardens are stretched too thin: when they keep stumbling upon people with fishing gear, who are in FMAs where fishing is prohibited, they know that they can either spend man/hours waiting around to catch them fishing, or enact regulations that prohibit the possession of the equipment in no-fishing areas. If there was unlimited funding, they could just post someone on each FMA, but in reality people don't want to be taxed at a rate that would pay for that kind of staffing; to manage the resource, we end up with legislation that impacts the law-abiding segment of the population. The CT reg I cited makes it easier to take care of the jacklighters while they are shining for deer, without having to wait until they take a shot (although watching a jacklighter make perfect shots on a full-body whitetail decoy and then wonder why it doesn't drop, is just about the funniest thing I've seen). Regarding your hiking buddy, this is where discretion comes into play, both on the part of your friend, and the officer involved: a cased, pack rod on an obvious through-hiker, is an easy one for the officer to warn, not cite.