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Iain,
Yes. You've answered the question. I will gap it for the extra sections and see what I can get working. Length of the loop isn't an issue for me.
In the unlikely case that the preferred non-shorting config proves to be a problem I will revert to the short circuit detecting method. It's just a wiring change.

Now for the final example not covered by your advice. It's a staging yard room for 5 long trains.



As shown, each of the 5 tracks is double gapped (green). The common point is the turnout on the far right. As before ignore the thin black lines as they are only for change of radius.
Ideally I would make the reversing section from one of the tracks leading off from the far-right turnout. But they aren't long enough at around 2.4 meters. The loop tracks are over 5meters long - twice as long.

This means I need to either have 5 reversing sections - one for each loop track. Obviously this would means short-circuit mode. Not cheap.

Or, I could alternatively have all 5 tracks wired as one reversing section. That would be in short circuit detection mode with room for the sensor gaps. The downside to that is that only 1 train movement is possible inside the staging yard at one time. I am also not sure if there are any detection issues involved with the polarity reversal of the tracks.

Surely this isn't a rare problem and there is a best solution out there!

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Thanks Iain, as I thought really.
I had a question buried in the bottom of the post about adding tracks inside the loop whilst still using all the RD5013 features.

This revision is a hybrid of the first one, adding in some storage sidings inside the loop (but not inside the switched reversing section itself).
So the loop is basically the same as in the RD5013 documentation on page 27 where it is section 5.3 "DR5013 with sensor tracks (S0, S1, S2, S3) and LocoNet" with some added storage tracks:
I was thinking of using more of the unused YD6016LN-RC to also report back on the occupancy of the additional storage. They are not in the reversing section, but are in the sensing blocks.
Here is the revised track plan:



Forget the outer double tracks.
All the yard tracks, storage, and reversing loop are on one booster.
So S0, S1, S2, and S3 are the tracks at the ends of the reversing loop (the inner curve). Please excuse the blurred image. The additional storage tracks are added in next to the loop switch. I hope that's clear.

Is it possible that I can have all the RD5013 features and still have some extra storage inside?
All the examples of how to make reversing loops never mention trackage inside the loop. I've not actually got the hardware so I can't test it for myself.

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I have 3 different places on my layout where I need reversing loops. Here is one of them.

Here is a copy/paste from the 3rdPlanit software of my original main yard design.



Green are double gaps, black are one rail gaps and the thin black lines are change of radius and not relevent.

I was trying to figure out if there was any way to use the DR5013 to sort out the reverse loop labelled BL70R in the diagram. The boosters are different in the connecting tracks.

Here is a re-design based on scenario 5.3 using S0, S1, S2 and S3 tracks. I did it to remove the use of multiple boosters and to do it the preferred way.




Obviously this loses a lot of storage inside the loop. There is room to add a turnout for more storage, but how does this interact with detection sections etc.