I believe whether its a necklaced backup or a necklaced primary the necklace should be designed to fail without huge ammounts of force or degrading the performane of the second stage (mouthpiece falling off). My necklace is held on with a zip tie in addition to the zip tie that holds on the mouthpiece. The ends are not knotted so it can be pulled free. I have been able to reassemble this underwater when yanked free.
Why is this important? What happens if someone grabs your necklace backup not your primary. Reasonable as thats what many organizations teach and it is "in the triangle". This could take someone from near panic to panic as they run out of options or more stress piles on. This is simply my opinion, I represent no one but myself.
I dive the long hose primary with a necklace backup and I do it in rec diving. So I don't think there is a "recreational hose config". Now I do it mostly for preperation for cavern and cave, but if I gave up those pursuits I wouldn't go back. I had the common thoughts about the long hose and necklace when I first read about them. Two things around my neck choking me??? No thanks. However you can't judge something you haven't tried. So I tried it, again mostly because of future cavern and cave plans and I believe one should be master of their gear before such pursuits. I was diving a BP/W but with short hose/octo config because I like the less is more attitude. Guess what, no choking, no confusion, just my backup right where I can always get to it. Sweet.
I applaud thinking about your issues, but in this case I would give the long hose and necklace backup a try, you might like it. I know I did.
my2cents