Thanks all for your advice, i am thinking about the transplate which seems like a more stable piece than the transpac and i have the ability to drop some weight as well, the plate is 6 pounds so i can drop my weight completely and use this, i use HP Steel 120's. Can you all suggest a wing setup for single tank thats good for tropical warm water (south florida) and travel. Anyone use the RiteSource octo instead of the normal octo?
Given that this is a hogarthian forum, the transpac, transplate, and especially octo/inflator are not going to be recommended.
A major idea of hogarthian diving is to eliminate unnecessary gear. A simple BP/W set up with a one piece harness does this extremely well. It's just a plate, webbing, and a wing, possibly fitted with a STA for single tank use. The simplicity of the system is really important, and all the things you mentioned add complexity.
If you talk with purely rec divers on the BP/W forum, you might get different perspectives. IMO, for all of my diving, less is more when it comes to gear configuration.
You might spend a little time figuring out your weighting needs in various situations to determine whether you're better off with a steel or AL plate. Many divers who get into this have both. I use my steel plate in most single tank dives, and my AL plate for my steel doubles, and on the occasional single tank dive with no wetsuit or heavy steel tank.
As far as the brands you mentioned, both dive rite and halcyon are widely used and respected by tech divers. Hollis I'm not familiar with, but my impression from their line of products is that they seem to be marketing themselves towards the rec diving community that is trying to be tech oriented. Just stay with a simple plate, webbing harness, and wing.