Can I switch to use the backup clone as the main drive?
 

if my main drive fails, and my backup drive is the same hardware, can i just swap in my backup drive and continue to use my mac as if nothing has happened?

in other words, is the backup clone different in some ways that it is not advisable to use as the main drive, and the backup should only be used for restoring the data onto some other drive to be used as the main drive?

thanks

Nope, nothing special. Just make sure it's partitioned properly for your Mac, and that -- if you're going to use it as the main drive -- rename it to the same name as the original to make it easier for aliases to find the files they're pointing to.