But in reading Bjorns website/building manual, I see he does it a bit differently than I'm used to - External strongback, no gluing until the hull is stripped, and then simply coating with epoxy, before moving on to sanding/fairing the hull.

I forgot to mention that I always use an external strongback, so that was not a change for me.
On the Frej build, I used bead and cove strips at the hull-deck joint, and though I'm not convinced it was worth the trouble (protecting the coves), it did make it easy to 'snap' together the hull&deck later.