I'm not saying your way of doing it is wrong Tristan, far be it if that's what suits you and yours so be it, but so many times you will see situations where there is multiple all-ins from short stacks and say the big stack at the table calls, and will quite often win the hand, eliminating say 3 players in one shot, where there could of in theory been the possibility of having to set-up 3 pots, which would then need to be awarded individually, this all IMHO wastes far too much time. I have always found it faster and easier to sort out the pots at the end, so much time saved gives the players more hands per hour, I apply this to tournament and cash game poker. I do get what you say about players no longer being interested, however I have usually found the opposite, players are interested to see if they have anything left or who knocked who out etc.
In relation to the 'knowing' how much each player has, yes we still do count down at least one stack unless it is blazingly obvious that the big stack has everytone covered by a considerable margin.
Stu