I don't think the whole mechanical attachment is something to even worry about. Over all the years I have only had one set of cheap parts store pads come apart and guess what, the brakes still worked just fine with the pad material gone, of course it destroyed the rotor but still.
The EBC issues you noted were a problem that happened quite a while ago and were resolved. I have been running Green and Yellow EBC's on my jeep for 15 years and they have been fantastic but are much too dusty for my usage on the expedition. I don't care that they are messy on the jeep, I just need it to stop.
Hawk makes good stuff and the only stuff they have that has mechanical attachment that I am aware of is their HD line which is for BIG trucks and not small consumer SUV's. I used hawk on my dodge truck when I had it and never had an issue with them and would use them on the expedition. When I did put pads on the back of mine I just got the premium ceramic pads from the parts store and they worked fine.
I am in the camp that thinks drilled rotors aren't needed on anything but race cars and frankly, I don't think most people need slotted rotors on anything but race cars too. Some of this is due to my experience offroading, slots and holes just give some place for mud, dust, and crap to collect. On my jeep I have gone strictly to Centric rotors and ebc pads, and the performance is significantly better than stock and other than those pads being dusty they are fantastic.
I had one jeep (manual transimission) that was still on its stock pads at 124K miles and they still had life left on them. That doesn't mean those pads were good, it was just a light vehicle and compression braking took care of most of the work. I really think you are way over thinking and over stressing the situation. If it makes you feel better, buy a big name product and run with it.
