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That makes me remember the Rube Goldberg contraption of flow vales and bypass lines that one of our members build at his electric fuel pump which served absolutely no practical purpose.

Sounds good, keep us posted! It would seem that fuel pressure/flow may not be the right issue to be chasing. You'll get it figured out eventually!

I just rebuilt my fuel/vacuum pump and it seems to have cured an bit of an erratic miss that was present at idle. I tried tuning that miss out several times and could never get rid of it. I wouldn't have made this connection as the pump was working, but something is different/better.

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If someone should want an electric pump and chooses a typical rotary type, then even if it is only used for priming, in order for it to work and allow the mechanical pump to pull fuel thru, a check or flow valve and Rube Goldberg contraption plumbing is almost always a necessity. A rotary might say they allow flow when stopped and might have some type built in bypass path but most of the inexpensive types for old car add on use do not. On most rotaries any flow thru the chamber will be blocked if there are multiple vanes and one happens to stop in a position between inlet and outlet openings. If a rotary was plumbed with a separate feed line and tied in after the mechanical pump then it would be debatable and would depend on type of pumps and other factors as to whether flow or check valves would be needed.

I think most would agree the need for an electric will always be open to differing opinions. Need may be overstated as they certainly were not a common option when cars were new but then lots of other things we take for granted and want or need today were not even available then. Need or not, they do have their uses in long sitting cars. Maybe not so much need in cars regularly driven but even for the occasional priming use it might be nice to be available to be called upon. In addition, there have been a few here on the forum who have posted their experience of having symptoms of vapor lock and how turning on the electric pump got them going again. I think that backup availability and peace of mind feeling alone makes it worth having one.

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It seems to me that sometimes "upgrading" your car can cause you grief. It's not that new/modern components are bad, but adding them to a system that was not designed for them can throw a monkey wrench in the system. My general rule of thumb when I need to repair, rebuild, or restore something is to use the original components, or as close to original as possible.