With all due respect to people's opinions... here are mine, as derived from many thousands of footprints on sand, coral, marl and muck. I have to say that I very much disagree with most of what's been proposed here, FWIW.
1) Boots for fishing the tropics and boots for fishing the northeast are very different animals for a number of reasons - tropical boots protect bare wet feet underneath in blistering heat where temperate conditions protect dry feet from hypothermia. The aggregate composition is much different as are the requirements for side abrasion, traction, and even color. Because leading goretex wader makers only cater to coldwater anglers, shoe size can differ by as much as 2 foot sizes between the two as well as the above.
2) Sand expulsion is not a good excuse for sand invasion. Sand causes pressure against the wrong parts of the foot and requires frequent emptying beyond what the holes may allow, the same holes are letting sand in.
3) Anything with holes will invite small sharp objects like rocks, shells and coral which is painful and requires frequent removal because they will not flush out on their own when impaled into your foot.
4) barefoot wading is only suitable under the most accommodating conditions and those who do so fish less water as a result of their lack of foot protection. I for one never want to limit where or how I fish because of that and therefore rarely fish barefoot. I agree it's a luxury and pleasure, but fishing is not a leisure activity to me - it's serious business I work to excel in.
5) The use of thick loop material socks has been practiced for decades in the pacific northwest as a means of preventing pebble invasion in linear running streams and is a preferred method for tropical silt/sand exclusion provided the shoes are fit and designed well enough to work with such socks successfully, and have no holes.
6) zippers and velcro are useless in northern ocean sand which is a higher grain size than glacial silt or coral marl and composed of shell and granite fragments which lock up the teeth. Velcro holds for about 1/2 a Nauset wave.
7) Laces are effective but come undone and involve these devices called "eyes" and "speed hooks" which deteriorate like crazy in the caustic salt environment and require double knotting, gaitors, and duct tape to keep from coming loose in the northeastern surf. They are great elsewhere if you don't mind pampering the metal and tying them all the time.
I could go on and on but will conclude by saying the single most effective shoe that has given me years of blissful use has been a zipper-less, lace-less, hardy soled high-top stretch neoprene boot that can be pulled over my neoprene goretex wader feet like a big sock leaving no appreciable gap. They have velcro tightening straps, which I was going to replace with nylon snap buckles because they don't hold, but never bothered because i didn't get any sand, rocks, or anything and would
leave them attached to the waders for weeks at a time like boot foot waders because they barely let any water in between and came off in one piece at the end of the day.
After years of service they are splitting apart from the sole (which is still in excellent shape) and unusable.
So if you're wondering where all this chest beating is coming from, it's because I believe I have seen northeast / SW wading shoe nirvana and lived it.
I vow that I regain that bliss or some reasonable facsimile thereof. Research is underway.