Without testing, I don't think you'd have to escape "Jon & James" because & as a word wildcard would still match & in the text (as a space deliminated "word").
right you are, all 3 wildcards match themselves in all conceivable cases which is why
if (%var iswm %var) is a tautology :P
and i'm not all that opposed to your suggestion but scripters and script users alike will have to be quite weary of &'s greater significance in wildmatches; would surely warrant an updated description in the help docs
