If I am doing rec diving in a west suit, my classic is far better for me.
BC evolved over the years and now they serve to be the center of the whole diving system for the diver in that almost everything is attached to the BC and whole diving practices depend on using one type of a bc or another.
Why is a jacket BC better for a rec, wetsuit dive?
Are you aware that backplate and wing systems come with 2" webbing which can be used to attach many standardized accessories, such as pockets and D rings? In other words, BP/W's can attach as much or more stuff than a jacket BC, and in a custom configuration. A backplate and wing is just as much the "center of the whole diving system" as a jacket bc.
People generally rise to the expectations set for them. Train students in a backplate and wing, and teach them to meet a quality level of diving that includes higher understanding of their equipment and proper bouyancy control, and the world will see a better generation of divers. If we keep training divers to poor standards, we'll keep having divers with poor standards. Simple enough.
The Zeagle Tek Express is a nice soft backplate option for classes, as it is sizable nearly instantly to fit a wide variety of people. Also, it is pretty cheap.
A friend recently told me about a...I want to say, $800 BC. For that price I could have bought more than two backplate and wing systems, as my first BP/w at approximately the same time cost $400. Additional systems do not need a backplate or webbing, merely wing, so I could conceivably have gotten three setups, for use with a single tank, a double tank, and a smaller travel wing, all for the price of one BC.
Divers have this mentality that a BP/W is just too complicated and hard for new students to use. It is this mentality that has students complaining about having to carry their own gear to a site, that they have to swim to pass the class, or that a class lasting longer than one weekend is too long. Do we really want to perpetrate this attitude, or do we want to change the diving industry to include higher standards for students? Why are we as an industry selling ourselves short? Aside from the fact that greedy companies hunger for faster turnover of students to increase short term income, rather than looking at the long term goal of creating lifetime divers who will then instill a love of diving in others.
[edit] Merxlin, just read your post above this. An instructor should be able to teach students how to properly remove and replace a BP/W. If they can't, then the class is too short or the instructor is...dare I say, not doing their job? If anything, removing a bp/w is easier than using the buckle/clip things on a BC, which are not standardized and can be confusing to some people. Trying to suggest that getting out of a single piece harness in a class is selling students short and fixing that lack of instruction with equipment rather than solving the true problem of poor instruction.