11i - iProc - Customised Approval List (non-AME) - downstream workflow implications

My basic requirement is that, depending on a value derived from a DFF on the Req Header, the approval path to be followed is

a) If req is for a contract, send req for approval to contract manager (doesnt matter how this is derived)

b) If req is not for a contract, follow the standard path, ie position hierarchy (not using employee-supervisor) / (non-AME) approval group assignment

From previous posts, if we use AME to generate the approval list, we lose the benefits of standard functionality such as notification forwarding, approval groups (as per b)) and so forth.

It also seems that the approval workflow steps after the initial generation of the approval list will always attempt to evaluate the approver's authority to approve based on their position/approval group (except in the case of a delegation via a vacation rule). So if the notification was forwarded, or additional approvers were added during checkout, this would complicate the evaluation of the approvers' authority.