Hi,
If there was a clever, cheaper, simpler ... solution ..... it surely is used by the big H-bridge manufacturers and you may find the circuit in the internet..
There are many threads from hobbyists here that try to find/use simplified solutions....Most of them result in the use of known circuits.
This doesn't mean that one should not look for clever solutions.. but from my experience it is rather seldom with a circuit like an H-bridge that is already usued billion times all over the world..
Klaus