The new yard lead is waaaaaay to short, if your into switching and all that jazz, your gonna want a nice long yard lead (Like in your first plan) to be able to switch the yard without going out on the main.
The sudden jerk movements mess with the way the locos track, long slow winding S-curves on the other hand, are sexy as hell and improve scenic abilitys.
If its a knuckle coupler it's not a nessasary part of the coupler, I normally clip my coupling pins off as I do all my Un-coupling with a pick not with a magent. It looks better that way anyway.