I don’t find “back inflate” to be an advantage for my type of diving. Quite the opposite. I do however see the point of a clean, minimalist and stream-lined harness when diving in my dry suit (I use the suit for buoyancy) and that generally means putting the bladder out of the way in the back.
For warm water diving I prefer jacket style BCD:s because I find them more stable in different swimming positions. When underwater I typically only have a little bit of air in my BCD, and I like it to be above me as much as possible to help with stability. I find that jacket style BCD:s are better in that regard. No matter how i position myself in the water, horizontal, on the side, belly-up, the air in the jacket can move around my body to the highest point and stabilize that position. For me, that’s a great advantage when taking pictures or just hanging around the odd reef spotting critters hiding under overhangs. A back inflate BCD tend to rotate me back to a horizontal position. Not a big deal or a huge difference, but I can notice it.
The downside is that I do feel the squeeze from the jacket when at the surface, but I really don’t mind. I also agree that the jacket BCD:s I typically dive with are a bit bulkier. But again, I don’t find that a problem under water and I am willing to pay that price for better trim in different positions, not only horizontal.
Having said that, my current travel BCD is a back inflate and It works well enough for me to keep it until it’s time to invest in a a new, jacket style travel BCD.
