In reply to wjcdean:
I'll try not to be too critical/sarcastic here since you say you're new, and asking for advice is not a bad thing. But there is a very noticeable tendency - here and in other online climbing forums - to over-analyse and over-complicate very unimportant questions about very minimal risks, and my initial reaction when I saw the thread title was that this would be one of those.
Deep breath, constructive ....
> i get that if you've used a cordalette they can just pop a crab through the mainpoint and clove hitch on
They can just do that to any point of the belay anyway. You say you're new to trad climbing it's unlikely that you'll be doing anything with fully hanging and/or dodgy belays for some time yet. Therefore your belay has two or three bomber points and is on some kind of a ledge. And these two or three bomber points are tied together in some way, even if only indirectly via your harness.
Think about it: the soon-to-be-leader at this point is standing on a ledge of some kind, albeit perhaps not big/comfy. Should he nevertheless slip - supposing he nearly drops a piece of gear that you're handing over, or something like that - the fall factor onto a bomber piece is minuscule, and that bomber piece is backed up.
He/you should be worrying instead about real risks, such as getting a bomber runner, ideally independent of the belay, asap after he starts climbing again, because then he is facing the possibility of a factor 2 fall that would seriously load the belay.