The only problem with powerline is what you mentioned....depends a lot on the existing wiring. Older houses have bigger issues with this than newer ones.

You don't need conduit, although if you're running it through something like a cold air return I believe you need Plenum rated cable. For both my current and previous house I used existing in-wall runs of coaxial and/or telephone lines to run ethernet. Just pulled the cover off, cut the cable, taped the ethernet to it and went into the basement to pull it through. Mind you, I didn't have a lot of bends to deal with, and we ditched landline and cable years ago so we didn't care about the existing lines.

Massively popular is subjective based on time period. He could have been massively popular in a town of 300, doesn't mean much. I'm still betting many in the late 1800s didn't give a shit, certainly not anywhere near to the point they are today, and you're arguing over a guy that's been dead for over a century for....what, internet points? This is a stupid discussion and you're wasting both our time on it.

And?

In the late 1800s, probably not as many as you'd like to think.

It is about being better, just not in some weird competition. It's being better for ourselves because it's the right thing to do and helps us move forward collectively with a lesser burden of sins from the past.

they were all raging racists back then. Really, like all of them.