FBO Ballast Resistor +PIC

If we had a truck load of money I'd design an Electronic ballast resistor and be done with MSD, sometimes we need to work with what we can get and afford.

Isn't the ballast resistor there to provide 12v to the coil at start up, then 8v at running?
Couldn't you just swap to a coil that won't burn up at 12-14v ?

I personally don't run one.