^Yes, Intamin really pulled the concept off much better with the Aqua Trax. There's a certain coaster that the Alvey's hit up on one of their recent trips that was just a perfect example of how to use water with coasters, but I forget where it was. It had outrageous theming though, and it interacted with both theming and water elements very well, while never actually floating through a canal.
Then again, the canal portion of the ride was pretty good too, it's just that people usually want either a coaster or a raft ride, not both together like that. It was great for some people, but it's simply more profitable to have the two concepts separate.
BSF never really was meant to impress anyone though. I mean, come on, a few seconds of floating followed by a helix and a mid-sized drop? Meh, it was only a prototype. The Herschends never meant to keep it long. I believe they meant to tear most of it down while re-using what they could from the start.