I don't know, g1138. Without someone to help you learn to set it up, I think ALL scuba equipment has its issues. If nobody showed you how to put an octo in a holder, yours would hang behind you, right? If nobody showed you how to put the inflator hose in whatever velcro or other restraining device the BC has, IT would flop all over, too.
I think a new diver has to be shown how to assemble and use equipment. I don't think a backplate rig is any more difficult than anything else.
As a new diver though you're usually trained in the typical jacket BC. You've dove with it, you've set it up, and you've probably seen many others using it.
Also with the inflator hoses on typical jacket and back-inflate BC's you don't tie down your inflator, you DO infact just let it flop around.
It's not perfect, but I believe the excessive padding, clips, straps, the whole lot, it provides a lot of comfort to a new diver. You'll have an example of how to rig your jacket BC because you were trained in one.
When I first started, I just didn't feel safe buying a BP/W, because it looked so simple. One inflator, one butt dump, a continuos thin strap with no quick releases!?
Stainless Steel bolts holding it all together? Is it going to rust like my knife? No one ever told me. I didn't even want to ask. It was alien to me and out of my comfort zone.
I wanted pockets, I wanted more D-rings, I wanted retractors and plenty of other things. I had no idea you could customize one to your liking or that you could add to it and what not.
No one ever told me. And I'm pretty sure if someone did, it would be too daunting to take to it all on by myself.
And I will say that a BP/W rig is a little more difficult to set up. I just had a friend who purchased one and had no idea how to even get the straps set right. So it is more difficult to start then say a jacket which is ready to go straight out of the plastic wrap.
My friend had to be told where the straps went, how tight they should be, where the plate should sit, how to set up a crotch strap, how to adjust the straps once you finally tested it in the ocean etc etc.
And that was just a simply HOG harness.
Now don't get me wrong, the very next big purchase I make IS going to be a BP/W.
And if anyone ever asks me which BC to get, I'll tell them BP/W, because down the road you're going wish you had one. And I'll gladly point them to my nearest friend who dives one so they can get all the info they need.
But in general unless you have someone to show you the ropes on using a BP/W effectively, then I'd say it's too much to handle for a new diver.
Jacket BC's are simplistic in that you can only customize it in set configurations.
Where as BP/W's are a lot more customizable, there's a lot more things you have to worry about on top of just diving.