I occasionally will fish the canal during steel season. I stay in my usual routine and keep moving down river.
But I understand the method behind the madness you see down by KWB. There are the obvious reasons like easy access and more of a social experience. Plus there is the fact that the canal can be extremely productive if you hit it right. Certain conditions and timing with the tides will consistently produce fish. These fish are fresh and aggressive. They haven't seen hundreds of other presentations.
On top of that, if you walk over the KWB, you'll see that the fish basically funnel through those two bridge pillars. Now these are just rough estimates but lets say the Vedder gets 10,000 steelies between Dec-April. So 10,000 fish over 5 months = 2,000 per month. So on average 66 fish a day pass through the 20ft slot between the pillars. Depending on conditions and time of the run, I'd estimate as many as 200-300 fish can come through there in any single day. Thats pretty good odds. Its a spot where you are pretty much guaranteed to encounter fish.
Its not the type of steelheading, or fishing in general, which I enjoy. But I understand it.