Having the electric winch makes life a whole lot easier, cleaner and simpler. I never felt comfortable using the hilift as a winch - it's a big chunk of mechanical machinery under tension just looking for an opportunity to take your head/arm/hand off plus I don't recommend dropping it on your foot (I did it once - 72" hilift is HEAVY).
You folks can keep your mechanical stuff - I'll stick to the winch for recovery and the comfort of using a toggle switch/cable to control it from inside the LR or at a safe distance. I confess that I never found the joy in being covered in mud & grease.
As regards the exhaust lift - these seem like a much better thing to carry to lift the LR3 when needed. I'd seen the UK models but didn't realize that ARB have one too - I assume that this means it's available from pretty much 4x4 store I suppose.