That's not really redundant.
Your solution involves trust. OP could theoretically broadcast the transaction earlier (e.g. working together with the recipient).
This should definitely be considered.
Heretik's solution on the other hand doesn't involve any trust.
The owner of the coins is the only one who can initiate that transaction (by not creating a new one).
IMO that's the best solution for a dead mans switch (at least the best i can think of).
Yes I've been thinking about it for a while, you could do this with only one timelocked tx.
You craft the transaction that will spend the coins from his existing addresses, to address A.
You craft a timelocked transaction from the output that still doesn't exist inside address A, that spends these same coins to the addresses of his buddy. This timelocked tx can be for example when OP is a 100 years old.
Broadcast the second tx. And don't spend the original coins.
That's it. Now he only needs to create a "switch" to spend his coins to the address A whenever he dies. A button on his phone when he's on his deathbed, or something.
In case he's still alive, he also owns the private key to address A, so he can invalidate the timelocked tx by sending the coins back to himself it if fuck-ups happen.