I can see where your coming from.
Yes a carb is not worth the hassle & would probably never match the STD injection system.
However there was a racing series that used the old 2.9 in carb form. Them engines churned out 230bhp.
But that was a pro developed engine package that was not cheap!
But just imagine this in your hot rod!

It don't matter if you use Edis or TFI with out an ECU return signal both will default to a static 10 BTDC.
Unless you use an after market controller.
What about the 2.8 dizzy, if you remove the cog & fit the 2.9 cog it should work I think.
Then all you need is the little module thing.