You just summed it all up. In cars like these there are compromises. The end user has to define what compromises they can accept. You outlined yours and that makes it hard to get big tube headers on the car. So it is what it is. And there is nothing wrong with that because most of us here don’t need to turn on win lights to make a house payment.
This ^^. The owner of the car has to decide on many compromises when putting together a car. Headers are among them. I understand both ends of the spectrum. If it's right for the owner, then it's the right header (or manifold).