Hi Jaxon
I've seen a modified A1 barracks at one of my LFS. I talked about it with them and they basically had new cubes made to the same depth and height, but double the width, so instead of having 8(?) cubes across each level, there was only 4.
With the drippers at the top, they originally just had one turned off and the other one at one end, but with half of them turned off it increased the flow through the others, so they simply added a piece of airline to one and ran it out the back of the cube, problem solved. Having the water come in at one side also provided the bettas with a movement end, or calm end so they could take their pick.
As for spreading of disease, I'll have to leave that up to more experienced breeders to answer.
Good luck