I have both, and like both...with the patent nose I like the closed rings, but have some of the open rings on my silver (and silver/gold) bar noseband halters--on certain horses I really prefer the latter halters, so I wouldn't give those up in favor of having only closed ring halters.
I have changed the noseband on one halter--I bought the halter with a medium noseband for my yearlings, but the headstall itself was adult size...so I bought an adult noseband for it and it now works great on my bigger horses.
I don't often use chains on my show halters but when I do I always wrap the chain around itself so that it doesn't tighten on the chin--it's more like a bumper bar, though a very mild one since it fits closer and doesn't have the same force when it connects with the chin. The added benefit is on the open ring halters it stays in place & doesn't ride up the cheek pieces. Generally, though, I prefer the little biothane chinstraps--they work good on the open ring halters.