Seems like there are two different things here; launching passengers and freight, and returning passengers in comfort and without neck injuries. One could easily envision a passenger only winged glider similar to the space shuttle to serve the passenger return role. Indeed, although spacex has nothing like that planned, these BFRs enable damn near anything.
Maybe some gyroscopic passenger seats that stay in one position relative to the ground so that they only feel g's going in one direction instead of being rag dolls.
I'd advocate for doing the flip on three engines for the added redundancy, then hovering for a second or so before landing; at least for passenger flights.
I think the idea is that two is redundant for the final design, but these test articles don't have the high power maneuvering thrusters. Without those they need to use the backup engine to manage the rotation.