Distinct Island by Destroying Islands.

Is it viable to tackle a DI problem by essentially “turning the islands to water”? Like each time you encounter a “new” island, DFS all the connecting island, each time setting the island value to a w

Is it viable to tackle a DI problem by essentially “turning the islands to water”? Like each time you encounter a “new” island, DFS all the connecting island, each time setting the island value to a water? Basically instead of doing a seen set, you’d know each time you saw an island, you know for sure you wouldn’t have seen it before because all islands before then had been “destroyed”.