hehe, you are so very correct, PC. I have a lot of cleanup. But it's not afterward. Doing single batches rather than two side-by-side seems almost too easy by comparison. With a 90 minute mash, I have tons of time to clean anything that needs cleaning. And then, with the new 60qt kettle, I don't really have to worry about boilovers once I reach hot break, so I just cleaned the rest of it up during the 90 minute boil.
To answer your other question: my setup is a trademarked proprietary hodgepodge. I direct-heat mash in my 8-gal aluminum kettle. Then I transfer that to the cooler for draining and sparging---I use the cooler rather than the SS MLT because it's got a nipple on the spigot that I can attach a vinyl tube to. I drain, sparge, the clean the cooler out. After flameout, I dump the wort into the SS MLT because the false bottom catches the hop leaves and then that hop bed acts as a filter for solids, which means less clogging of my funnel strainer (I've never whirlpooled before...might try it some day). I could use the same orange cooler for this, but the diameter of the stainless tun is much larger and thus there's less chance of the hops clogging up the false bottom.
No, not worried about HSA. It's just one quick motion...and my beers have never shown any signs of being affected by it.
Oh, and I tried direct-fired mashing in the SS MLT one time, and ended up with burnt spots on the inside floor of the vessel---mainly because when you stir the mash, the false bottom prevents much movement below that point. So I don't do that anymore.