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Now that you mention it.
The loops or clips as they call them can be very handy, if you want to have your plate set up a certain way. Here you are looking to have an adjustable system with tighter shoulder straps, but you do not want quick release buckles. So you do not use s triglide on the back of the plate like many videos describe to prevent the strap from sliding.. The clip is put thru from the back to the front of the plate.
You pull the waist strap tight. The webbing slides thru the clip tightening the shoulder straps. Now everything is tight. Which is what a lot of DIR people say you should not do. If you have any accessories, Drings, weight pouches, etc on the belt, this does cause some issues, as the waist belt section goes back and forth a bit. So some versions of the weight pouches including the mares one have a triglide mechanism that can be used to fix the weight pouch position relative to the backplate. When you adjust the straps, the straps slide thru the belt loops on the back of the weight pouches instead of the pouches going back and forth.
OMG there it is again. A gear solution to a skills problem. Or it is a gear problem to a skills solution.
We are going to backplate and wing systems for instructional purposes at the shop. I wish we had done that 10 years ago. Since we have to accommodate a large range of sizes, this is one of the types of adjustment approaches that we are experimenting with.
There are other functionally similar systems on the market which utilize a round surface on the back of the plate rather than a triglide so that the webbing strap can slide more easily.