I'm writing this post because I couldn't find any good discussion on this option.

When I first started hiking, I bought leather boots lined with goretex for a 10 day trek in the dolomites in October a couple years back. On day 1 they were completely drenched in water and for the next couple of days they stayed wet, and my feet stuffered miserably.

Next, I bought ankle high hiking shoes with the bottom half from leather and top tounge from mesh. These are a lot better and dry much quicker.

Another problem is rain pants. If there is constant rain it's obvious you should wear them. But if there is a light drizzle or the rain comes and goes the decision is not so simple. Also you have to carry the pants.

And with all of the aboce measures taken, you will probably still get wet eventually.

Right now I'm in Japan where it rains while it's relatively warm (22 Celsius right now in the day) and my setup is: Xero sandals, shorts, marmot minimalist and marmot waterproof cap under the hood the keep rain off my face and from getting inside the jacket.

I think this is a really good setup if you are comfortable walking on slippery surfaces with sandals, and you can just let yourself can wet from pants down, dry really quickly afterwards and not feels miserable or risk nasty foot conditions that occur when your feet are inside soaked shoes for a long period of time.

Any disadvantages or something obvious I'm missing that should deter me from going with this method? I would like to hear more thoughts about this topic.