I have a major concern about octo coming out from left side. What about the diver needs his/her own octo?? He/she will have a up side down octo. Most likely can't full purge water out of it to breath comfortable.
The advantage of the hogarthian long hose is that if you decide you need to be close to the receiver, you don't need to deploy the entire 7ft. Let the hose wrap around the canister, it will be much shorter, and gareentee in physical contact range.
I actually think being in physical contact maybe a bad thing. Here is my thought. If you and another diver hold onto each other, who is controlling the mutual buoyancy? One diver can be positive, other can be negative. If for some reason, you let go of each other, one will sink and one will float up. A long hose allow enough room for both diver to control his/her own buoyancy independently, much more likely to maintain over ascent rate. In the case of panic diver, I think even if you are in close physical contact, things may happen so far that you still can't control the panic diver.