Hi all
I have seen and done most styles of bee management; certainly the ones mentioned here recently. The first method I was exposed to was the two story brood nest plus excluder. The excluder really is a boon if you have a lot of old droney combs and you are too cheap (frugal) to replace them. You can use them in the honey supers.

The next method I saw was the all deeps, no excluders method. This made sense to me. By the way, in California nobody practiced "reversing" for the simple fact that the bottom boards are nailed on. We simply added more room above. If the queen put brood everywhere, we figured: more brood = more bees = more honey. You just work around it.

In 1981 I first saw the single story brood system, where the excluder confines the queen to the first box. I think it is important that there be nine frames (in 10 frame box) with pretty nearly perfect combs. The chief benefits are: easy to find queen if needed, all the honey is pushed out of the brood nest, no brood in honey supers, easy to harvest, move, etc. 

Drawbacks: maybe not really enough room for queen. No place for drone rearing, really. Personally, I am averse to working on hives low to the ground, unless sitting on a stool. By the way, I also don't like hive stands that are higher than 4 or 5 inches because they make the hives too tall in summer. 

PLB

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