Xero shoes

I usually hike in New Balance Minimus. I bought my first pair of Xero sandals last summer and like them - but not for hiking. I was wondering if anyone had any insights into any of their minimalist hiking shoes. I was looking at the terraflex in particular. Anyone use these or any other similar trail runner/light hiker. I hike with 25 lbs in my backpack max.

Over the past years, I had been hiking in the Middle East desert on quite a regular basis.
There is an English guy who is living there (mostly for hiking and writing guide books about it) whom I hiked with for many weeks.
He did all his hikes with sandals, and is absolutely happy with it.
He said, biggest issue was that small stones and debris gets stuck between the feet and the sandals all the time and he had to learn a specific trick to get rid of the debris on the run without having to stop.
I tried the very same for myself but failed to learn this trick, and gave up on the sandals for good.

Folks have thru hiked with crocs and even barefoot. That said, my observation is that the New Balance lightweights appear to have traded weight for durability.

I love my new balance but would like to try out the Xero Terraflex. I don't want to hike in sandals. I just mentioned the sandals because they are a Xero product and I like them - just not for hiking.

I have really loved my z trail sandals. pretty much lived in them all summer.

Also added mesa trail "shoes" to my closet and basically ignored my NB minimus all summer. Tried my NB on a few weeks ago and they no longer foot as my foot has spread being in sandals and the mesa trails by xero. But that's ok as I love the Mesas for hiking. I love that there is no break in period. They basically feel like slippers for me. I have not tested them out on "big rocky hikes" with a full pack but I did a bit of day hikes in CO this summer.

I do tend to keep a pretty lightweight pack and so I feel like I will be GTG this summer with my pack as I do pieces of the AT and BMT and who knows what other trails.