You can add a backup pump without replacing the whole thing. If you're not on a well, you could also do a water powered backup pump - I did that in my last house. Put it in the same put and it used the municipal water line to pump when we lost power. Water bill was never too crazy and saved us a few times, plus we didn't worry about having a battery dying.
I actually came up with an idea - there's a woodstove in the room, so we are going to frame it out and make it look like deliberate tall, skinny log storage. We'll see how it goes.
Dishonored series. Coolest system I've ever played - teleportation, possession, and some fascinating level design in the sequel where you jump between times with magic. So cool, in fact, that I've had dreams that I have the Dishonored powers.
That's a really good idea - we could even remove the shelves entirely and have it just be log storage since there's a woodstove in that room. That might be the solution!
Your first point: there is actually NO space above the support beam. Our HVAC guy grabbed a ladder and showed us. That beam is like 2-3 feet deep and goes all the way up. And they can't cut through because we're on a mountain and it has to support several hundred pounds of snow load.
There is truly nowhere else to put the ducting. We walked all through the area with the HVAC guy and suggested idea after idea and there is physically no other location to run it. Hiding it is the only option, as horrifying as it is, unless we tear out the entire new HVAC system (which we can't do).
Meta has shown repeatedly that they aren't trustworthy. This is like watching a wolf eat every one of your chickens in the coop and then swearing up and down that if you let it in the hen house, it won't touch the chickens in there. Absolutely zero chance that they aren't going to try to take over and steal data and control it. Why else are they trying to come in? These corporations don't make moves like this unless they see a potential profit. I vote block.