I think the gen 2 1301 Tactical skus J131T18NLE and J131P18NLE are both sans choke tube
Marketing info from manufacturers often contains factual errors
“Safety is nice, but it’s not first. Life is first and it’s not safe.”— Jeff Cooper
Given your intended purpose, Home Defence, I would think the Tactical with shorter OAL would be your default frontrunner. A few inches could make a big difference when rounding doorways and hallways.
I think all their "LE" SKUs are sans choke tubes. Thinking being that LE guns benefit from one fewer part that can go wrong.
I really wanted a 1301 Tactical for a long time, but after handling it I went with a 1301 Comp 21.
I do not like ghost rings and see them as a negative for any realistic home defense scenario that I can envision on my property. The most important thing is to be able to see clearly what is going on and make good decisions. Ghost rings block a good chunk of my view, slow my target acquisition, are a distraction for me. Grab a 1301 Tactical and a Comp side by side and try to quickly aquire targets. The Tactical has a lot of crap up on top of the barrel that gets in the way.
Ghost rings are great if I need to shoot slugs at 50 yards. But I'm not doing that, so I have no desire to try to turn my shotgun into a rifle.
And yes, I understand how buckshot patterns at short distances and that you need to aim a shotgun. But I can aim it more quickly at the distances I care about with a vent rib and a fiber optic bead.
In terms of length, it's still pretty short. I'm not carrying it on my back through the desert for 3 months. And I don't mind an extra 2.5" of barrel. It will lower the volume just a bit and give me a tiny bit less chance of suffering from tinitius the rest of my life should I ever have to actually use the damn thing.