When I started diving I was advised to go with a jacket style bc w/rear air bladder and front air bladder(on both sides by the pockets). It keeps you more level when floating at the surface, However; with too much air in it it creates a squeeze that can be uncomfortable even after letting air out.
The 'squeeze when (fully) inflated' is the perrennial complaint of the Jacket design. Some jackets are better/worse than others, as some designers have taken this into consideration when designing the bladder vs harness.
In any event, what this really gets into is a broader question of equipment design philosophy, priorities and trade-offs. For example, going to a back inflation (wing) does eliminate this squeeze potential, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. Part of its trade-offs are that this design approach does by definition move the BCD's center of lift to be further "behind" the center of mass of the diver, which has implications for changing both surface float characteristics (pre- and post- dive) as well as for during-dive body positioning. Naturally, the magnitude of these factors varies by other factors such as how much thermal protection (and associated buoyancy thereof) and other elements that contribute to how much air is in the BC, and the net sum difference may or may not be acceptable to the diver making the trade-offs.
This cheaper bc wore out as the pockets tore out and in general was not a quality bc (Dacor)-by Mares but no longer manufactured. ... Zegal is made of very strong fabric sort of bullet proof in my experience and I believe they can be custom fit and you still have pockets.
(slight editing re-arrangement of statements)
One of the things that I've found to be interesting in BC design is that they all used to be made of pretty lightweight material, whereas today's are often 1000 denier Nylon, which makes them quite bulky & heavy (especially for airline considerations). Sure some of the oldtime BCs were downright cheap and would break down, but others would still last a long time. I'll admit to being quite cynical here: I suspect that the reason why we have BCs made with 1000 denier Nylon isn't because it is really needed for diving, but because it helps to sell the product in the store...it is kind of like a "MHz Myth".
It also had 1 tank band. I replaced this with a Zegal Tech bc. This still is a jacket type with pockets but has wings or a back air bladder. If you fill this with too much air while floating at the surface it will force you foreward and be uncomfortable but with the right amount of air you float quite well and Never get a squeeze. I was able to add a back plate and the 2 tank bands make a very secure attachment for my steel 130cu ft tank....
The Zegal's bladder is on the diver's back, so it is a Wing configuration. That's why there's no squeeze but there's also the surface float "faceplant" trade...which BTW becomes more pronounced with an end-of-dive AL80 rental tank found at most dive resorts. But in any case, I wanted to comment on the tank bands comment: probably each manufacturer has their own tank band design, and while some of them are perfectly adequate, there are some that really are pretty bad - - the easiest advice to offer here is for a diver to not be afraid of "Mixing Brands" and doing his own refit of the tank band. Years ago, I had a TUSA BC which used a single band setup which wasn't that great, and a stop at the local dive shop to buy a ScubaPro 'cam band' assembly to replace it solved the problem.
... I had a Decor metal as I was from wi. then they don't make'em any more ...
Here's my old Dacor ... it needs a good, loving home to pay for its restoration:
-hh