Hmm, that's quite an interesting design... slower, but I think when the engineers figure things out it will get significantly faster! You don't need to know if it's possible, they're engineers after all...

And really, it indeed sounds safer than the normal cable-powered lift :) Probably less maintenance as well, until it breaks, then I can guess that it's going to be a total nightmare trying to figure out which screw got wrong, but yeah, that's what engineers do...