Why don't you want to do the drywall again? You can rent the lift for a day to make it easier. Some people tack on the furring strips and the drywall over that instead of pulling down all the plaster.

Your alternative solution sounds like at least as much hassel with not as good results - 4 x8 panelling generally looks kinda cheap.

Or, if the damage isn't too bad you can just repair the cracks and use drywall patches to fill in the holes.

We want to do something besides drywall for a number of reasons. We live hours from the nearest place to rent a lift or any other equipment for this type of remodel. Costs to have it done are quite high because of the rural, remote area where we live. The nearest contracting for this type of job is just as far away and the travel costs are tremendous. (We had a maytag washer from a major home improvement chain under warranty with a service contract that needed service..they chose to REPLACE a 2 month old washing machine and let us keep the old one because they had no one close enough for it to be cost effective! Of course we had to pick it up ourselves too) Also, my husband has lung problems and the dust from it causes him a lot of trouble, even with hanging plastic, masks, and sealing the area off as much as possible. The dust that comes from these suspended ceilings isn't helping either and we really wanted something that would more or less seal the ceilings. Thanks for your suggestions but they just aren't an option for us.

what about a membrane ceiling like this? No weight on the existing grid....

Here is a link that might be useful: a vendor