Lots of those differences. I well remember taking an American colleague to a club/disco years ago. When we left, he asked why everyone was so mad at each other. I said the crowd seemed quite layed back but rather drunk. Then I realised - they had been saying they were 'pissed' (eng usage -drunk)! Not pissed at each other.
Erik,
We solved it another way - 2 connectors on each module - in and out. So all modules daisy-chained with a load in a dummy plug at the end unit. Another way, but more open to installer abuse is 3 connections in the plug and a load in every unit connected across one of the 485 legs and the third pin. A shorting link between the third pin and the other leg completes the circuit on the end unit only.
We actually dropped any kind of matched load for our <=19.2kBd, <500ft systems. The maths says it's hardly necessary. The ringing is over well before 0.5bit time... Also allows you to use high value resistors to bias the legs well apart for maximum voltage noise immunity.
Dave