I would, personally, shut off the breaker in the panel before working on the hot tub, and I would not rely on a contactor to cut off the circuit for maintenance purposes either...
I suppose I assumed that the intentions of 680-12 is to provide a means of shutting down the hot tub for the "consumers", not entirely unlike an E-switch; although 680-38 gives exception for residential for actual E-switches.
The switch will not even remotely resemble a disconnect, so I see no danger for confusion where a maintenance shut off is required. I would bet that any maintenance man would shut-off the 50A GFCI breaker marked "Hot Tub" in the panel and not even notice the lowly switch on the wall.
This is simply my opinion, and any NEC quotes to thwart this idea will render this idea as useless.
Dspark, your good points and opinion has not gone unnoticed, however.
