No airflow is a bummer. My boring ducted AC brings fresh air to each room. Optionally mixed with fresh air from outside. Minisplit guarantees you are just circulating the same air around the room.
Having ducted AC that brings fresh air to each room has the obvious drawback that you're wasting energy to cool down (or heat up) rooms that do not contain any humans. Like when you are sleeping in your bedroom, there's no point in cooling your living room and kitchen as well in most cases. A split system that only circulates air within one room would use a fraction of the energy in that case.
I know smart duct vents exist, but I am hesitant to dramatically change the pressure the ducts operate under since it might blow out the circulation fan.
Daikin has a range which pulls air from the outside. I'm using it in the room I am in now. Here in Sendai the nights are cold enough that my house is coasting still. Thus the mini split is acting only as a fan and pulling in fresh air. This house is old, 30+ years, so it's nice as a retrofit to improve air quality.
Opening a window would be an obvious alternative but then sound would mix.
The true benefit of mini splits is the hyper competitive market. There is a mini split for all desires and the prices to install are reasonable here in Japan.
