Thanks for such a thorough answer @cerbera - I really appreciate it! I had pretty much reached the same conclusion myself, but wanted to throw it over the the forums in case I was missing something ...
So, what I am trying to do is create cloned 'ribbons' which I can randomise the materials on using Mograph / Redshift. The reason I am using a Connect object is to ultimately make each 'ribbon' into Cloth. So ultimately I get the benefits of a cloth simulation, with a controlled cloned surface for my materials.
I've tried doing something similar using a Voronoi Fracture om a single piece of geometry which works up to a point, but suffers from the same issue when the multiple ribbons are thrown into a Connect ...
If there's any other methods that might achieve a similar result I'd be open to trying!
Thanks.