A BC is what it is. It's a place to attach a tank and a bag to hold some air to compensate for buoyancy lost by wetsuit compression, or gained by loss of air mass from the tank.
If all you want is something to hold a tank, you can get by with a small backpack and some webbing, or even just a tank and a rope handle.
If you need to conpensate for buoyancy changes (not actually necessary with a small tank), then you need a bouyancy compensator of some sort. Either a BP/W or a jacket will work just fine.
If you want pockets, you can add them to the plate or it's webbing, or buy a cloth BC that has them. The same goes for d-rings.
You'll find that everybody promotes either what they manufacture, use or carry in stock. The BP/W manufacturers will tell you that theirs is superior because that's what they manufacture. The BP/W users will tell you that theirs is clearly superior because that's what they use. The stores will tell you that a cloth BC is clearly superior because that's what they carry and sell. The cloth BC users will tell you that theirs is better because that's what they use.
I don't manufacture or sell anything, own both, and in my opinion it makes absolutely no difference at all which one you get, unless you're going to be using a set of heavy doubles. A steel BP holds ~100+ Lbs worth of tanks better than a cloth BC.
Other than that, try a few styles in the pool and buy what makes you happy.
flots.
