Your cute "noodle" floats does exactly what you need to relax white knuckles grip on RC when flying low over water.
Dobmatt, I was not trying to question your wonderful design only at the favour of my simple but 'cute' pool noodle design. Not at all. It's pure craftsmanship as it looks to me.
I just wanted to share the main concerns I had while deciding for a solution for floats:
I have thought about a very rigid construction, similar to what you came up with (by far not as good looking). But I decided it couldn't work because it would interfere with the raising mechanism, which I never trust since it is operated by radio signals and software, and we all know that radio signals sometimes can get messed up, as well as software.
What happens if your landing gear suddenly begins to raise? I have seen this happen a few times on different firmwares. I always have the auto gear switched off. But still. One time (only once, but still) it decided to raise while I was picking it up, nearly crushing my fingertip in the process. Maybe a rogue wifi signal? Maybe it was VPS related? Who knows. But there's no way to be sure that it will never happen again, on the ground or in the air. Unless you pull the plug from the gear servo. I guess that's what I would want to do if I would have to fly with floats that permanently block the gear mechanism.
Would it just stop, or would it crush the raising mechanism, the servo with worm wheel is producing quite some force. Have you tested that? I did not because the risk the gear becomes damaged is too big. Unless you make the construction self sacrificing in which case it wouldn't add a lot of extra rigidity.
Those were my thoughts. Maybe I'm overly cautious. I'm working to mitigate every known current risk, not introducing new ones, that's all.
Mine, more advanced system was developed with different goals in mind: landing on rough water or terrain (high grass, rocky surface, sloped etc.), operating the drone off the boat etc. It passed abrupt emergency landings (Critically Low Battery) on water with no issues whatsoever. It's mounted only when needed and dismounted right after.
My 'poodles' (yes they are cute aren't they

) of course were 'developed' with exactly the same in mind. I have flown them first over land with a lot of gushy wind, after that over the water, they float high and stable, even on the windy lakes' short choppy waves, take 30 secs to mount or dismount, don't add much weight, are capable to crash and still keep the bird afloat (even one single poodle), lands perfectly in a auto land or RTH, on water, tall grass, snow (assumption, not tested yet), mud, sand, you name it. All that, with the landing gear still fully operational. I feel very comfortable to take off and land on (fresh) water bodies in moderate wind conditions now. And it flies almost the same as without, in moderate winds, the kind we normally prefer to shoot (sail)boats. With the gear raised they don't pop into view, only in fast tight turns between shots, that I cut out normally anyway.
While mine don't look good and are just pool noodles, they were crafted in less than an hour and do the job better than I ever expected.