Mbrooke,
I would just go with whatever is convention in your facility on push open and close. There is a lot of times logic that supervises a breaker opening or closing. If that is the case, you aren't going to get around operating the breaker without a working relay so using the front push buttons on the relay is not much different than panel buttons or switches.
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If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.