I explained it elsewhere, but the "looking cool" part is not just about aesthetics in the superficial sense. It's about the fact he wants to use marbles to trig

I explained it elsewhere, but the "looking cool" part is not just about aesthetics in the superficial sense. It's about the fact he wants to use marbles to trigger electro-acoustic instruments, and he wants to have some features that kinda suck, such as the "marble elevator". He could keep the mechanical sequencer and trigger instruments using hammers. That would make this project more feasible. But then he wouldn't have the marbles... Honestly all the problems here are centred around the "marbles" constraint :/ But your point stands: he could lower the scope and actually finish something.