I did the second option with a P3-ROC on a Hot Tip that was partially destroyed in a fire. It's pretty straight forward, just a lot of cutting out of stuff. Bonus you will be set for extra EM parts for a long time!

Plus once I did that, then I could create more elaborate light shows, added multiball, replaced the captive ball with a latching ball lock, put in modern music, etc...

My only real advice from experience is figure out what voltages you want to use. I made the game work fine with a 24VDC power supply (as most of the original coils were powered with a mix of 24V AC and some DC). But once I added more mechs like the ball latch, I needed to go up to 48V to get them to function correctly. Only thing I would have done different would have been go straight to 48VDC. With MPF you can fine tune the power to you're liking.

No it's a great off the shelf homebrew pinball controller solution. It's very flexible to your project needs. You can also consider the products by Fast as well, or if on a budget, CobraPin.