The biggest risk of adding water to acid in an open beaker or regular flask is the water floating on top as its added to the denser liquid, boiling away, and splashing acid on the user. If you've got a giant flask with a side arm, and a dropping funnel or thistle tube releasing HCl under the water surface, then you likely won't get a mess. After all, you have to have some way of catching HCl vapor, and drying it, in order to use it. So you're already trying to keep liquid under control.