It sounds like you are doing finish tiles for a bathroom or similar? I would not split face or paint, those are hard to track/change for design changes in the future, in addition to future users being confused why patterns aren't updating on a wall. The split face tool is good for selective uses, but over-use causes lag and bloat in the file - so its semi-never used in most offices from what I've seen.
What is typical is a separate wall type with an acronym or parameter that has "FW or Finish" etc in it. That way you can filter them easily if needed, for example in the overall architectural plans and only keep them on for enlarged. This wall is placed via your standards and just 'laminated' on top of the partition wall. You can then keep partitions fairly simple types (limited number) and just for structural purposes.
If its a consistent height off the floor, I'd put both finishes into one wall, so you can control them globally. You can use a stacked wall for this super easy (its kind of built for this purpose). I personally never use stacked walls, so I would probably muscle the basic wall to do it --- if you edit the assembly, click the preview flyout, then switch to section, you can add sweeps and all that jazz to the wall.
You can use Pattycake for (free) live preview editing of the patterns as you custom write some. That was the original intent of the software --- instead of needing to write it, then load it into CAD or Revit to 'see' what it looks like.
www.pattycake.io
Web based & real time .PAT creator. The largest collection of free PAT files! Over 700+ Pat files ready to download
No plugins or add-ins to install, and Revit compliant!