Your friend is right. A single overflow is a disaster waiting to happen. It woudn't even be necessary for the hole to plug up. All it would take is for the return pump to decide to pump a little extra water and the tank would slowly fill to the point of overflowing.
The good news is - all is not lost.
You're tank has 3 holes drilled in it, not just one. If you bring the return lines up over the tank rim, you can use these holes as part of your overflow system. There is no reason why the return lines have to come in through the back of the tank.
Plesae do read about the 'beananimal' overflow. You're tank has everything you need for this and it is such a great overflow system. I used it on my first tank and will use it on my new tank as well.
Basically, all you would need is a single piece of acrylic bent into a L shape to create an internal coast to coast overflow. Have the piece custom made and use a minimum thickness of 1/4" to avoid bending under the water presurre inside the tank. You can use silicone to hold it in place. Silicone doesn't hold acrylic to glass very well, but for this purpose it works fine.
I can show you some pictures of how I did exactly what you need to do if you would like?
The only disadvantage of this approach is that you do lose some realistate inside the tank.
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