I recall a mentor of mine telling me that all confusion with the different types of AI could be avoided by the application of an appropriate internal scan of the AI - something I had never heard of in my initial MECIR years ago.
Much of the confusion people experience in the thick of it arises from looking to the Pointer for bank direction and angle - which is not its purpose!
The internal scan workcycle referenced was Dot (for attitude reference), Wings (for direction of bank relative to horizon), Pointer (for specific angle of bank),
and in that order. Works a treat!
Although I have yet to use a system with a pointer at the bottom of the indicator as described in the OP
(disclaimer 
), an understanding of how to use the instrument correctly (which seems to be lacking at least in the low end of the industry) and the application of an effective workcycle would mitigate to some extent the possible issues in transitioning from one type of AI to the next.