The norm for shots at a sporting clays station is 10. In casual shooting, our group most often shoots only 5-6.
Barrels can get smoking hot in the summer and can burn enough to cause 2nd degree burns. Thin leather gloves don't help much when the barrels get that hot. A splinter forend guard made of leather covered spring steel is the standard aid for a splinter forend. It helps a bunch. I wouldn't buy a dedicated target gun with a splinter forend. That's just me. I'm very happy to have a splinter forend on a field gun though.
It's back to: do you want to shoot sporting clays to the best of your ability, or do you want to shoot sporting clays to the best of your ability with a gun that is not optimized for the game? There's a difference. There's also individual features that get you incrementally closer to the optimized gun.
You chose a sxs instead of a o/u. I'm sure you're aware that an o/u is accepted as the standard in the target game and some features give an advantage to the o/u. As long as you realize you likely give up something in the way of target breaking when you chose not to follow the established configurations of target guns, you'll still enjoy shooting, even if it's a .410, muzzle loading, double trigger, damascus, no forend, straight stocked gun with 4" of drop and a 13" LOP.
To many shooters, the enjoyment is shooting the gun in hand to the best of their ability. Others need to break more targets than the next guy. Some need both. Have fun.
