Im a sucker for a cool gizmo or a project that lets me McGiver things together. I totally get the thinking behind your project. My current grow is much more of an experiment (an excuse to play with new gizmos) than it is a grow for the purpose of harvesting weed. It would be nice if I got some product at the end, but I already have enough RSO caps to last me into 2019. I mostly just wanted to play around with hydro 
I agree with you that simple is almost often better. I just cant resist messing with a good thing though