Wishlist Free Membership with Double opt-in?

I know there are plenty of wishlist member threads here and I've looked through many, many of them, but can't seem to find the answer. If there is a thread, please let me know and I'll delete this.

I am working on a membership site, free front end, paid backend/upgrade. I want double opt-in on the front end, but can't seem to get it to work smoothly.

If I use the wishlist registration form, those signing up still get access without needing to confirm. There is a confirmation setting, but that is only for wishlist. Without confirming, a free membership is "somewhat" pointless.

Seems I have to do a form on the regular squeeze for on the frontend, they would need to confirm and then I send them to the wishlist registration form and I'd have to turn off the AR integration or it would be duplicate subscribers.

Just seems a lot to ask from subscribers, might loose quite a few in the process. I could pre-populate some of the registration form passed by the AR service, but still seems like I'm making them jump through too many hoops.

I'd really like to use just the wishlist registration form, so I'd have a better chance of getting more info, such as first name. But I don't see how it's possible with double opt-in.

Any one doing this and know something I am missing?

I know I can do single opt-in with the right AR service, but I don't like being that open for the free end.