I've made several useful mods, including the flip-down table for vertical cutting, which is one of the slickest and most useful mods I've seen.
Can you post some pictures of the mods you've made and describe them a bit more? The link earlier in this thread to the article about the hinged table intrigues me - but the door hinge used bothers me. I appreciate the authors outside the box thinking and that has me spinning my wheels on ideas now also.
I looked at Grizzly machines. Their 0622 saw is comparable to the HF - but $100 more and another $125 truck freight to deliver. I'll browse some local used listings, also, and see what pops up. I looked on FB Marketplace the other day and there wasn't much for band saws - wood variety and either cheap or heavy/large industrial, not much in between.