Apeks Exotec vs Scubapro Hydros Pro

So being late to the party seems like its bag here. I am buying my first full setup and the Apeks and the Scubapro Hydros are my two top contenders for BC's. I have been reading about both and there seems some division on both, they are either the best thing since sliced bread or they are awful.

I am looking to start to dive locally with a group I found on here and then an annual tropical dive trip. I would like to have the best of both worlds, I know sometimes that is not something you can get, a good travel BC and a good weekly/bi-weekly unit. One reason I am leaning Apeks over Scubapro is the harness, I have been backpacking for years the the lumbar support is very familiar. I also have bad shoulders, so getting some of the weight off my shoulders on the boat would be fantastic.

Now, since the Apeks has been out for a couple of years I wanted to see if people still seem to like it as much with 100-200 dives as they did with 20.

I have searched and keep coming back to this thread on Scubaboard, I am just looking for a bit of a longer term case study on the Exotec

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Edit: I am pretty sure at this point I am not going to go down any technical route that is why I am looking at BC's VS BPW setups. Maybe I am being naive by not exploring that option but thats kinda where I am at. I am still a petty novice diver (25 dives) I though that if I were to keep going down the dive route to tech diver a back inflate BC would be a good stepping stone in that direction.

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2nd Edit: I just purchased a Hollis ST travel setup with the aluminum back plate through a local shop. They helped me set it up and fitted it with dump-able weight pockets and a cutting device. The shop has been amazing and the owners are excited to talk diving from rec to tech cave stuff. I am waiting for my reg set to come in, I went with a necklace setup for the safe second source and I can not wait to blow bubbles next week the local pool.