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Yes, because nearly every house in cold climates is ducted, and we’re trying to get people off oil heating quickly, easily, and cheaply. Popping a new heat exchanger in an existing furnace is stupid simple compared to running coolant lines to new, wall-mounted exchangers all over the house.

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I think that's true, if the ducts exist already that's simplest and cheapest. If they don't mini-split type systems are. But I suspect that long term those are going to be a pain in the butt because you have a lot of failure points.

Mini splits seem to be pretty reliable. They’re very common outside of North America. Most of the leading manufacturers seem to be from Japan (Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, Daikin)

Hydronic heat distribution (baseboard and radiators) is quite common in New England.

Sorry, meant to mean "in the US", since this was an American Government competition.

New England is part of the US.

Not in any construction in the last 50 years.

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