Admittedly, I don't live in Florida and I don't know a lot about what's going on with this. So, I'm about to give my completely uneducated opinion. I do it all the time, it's fine.
I don't think this is about unreasonable fear. Sure, there's probably some of that, but these snakes are not native to the Everglades. If they are in fact "taking over" then they could destroy that ecosystem and it's understandable that the people of Florida would have concerns about that. Obviously we don't know how much of what we hear about it is accurate and how much is exaggerated, but still. They don't belong there.