Remove a drop ceiling in kitchen bad or good idea? – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Hope everyone is doing well. I’m renovating a kitchen and bedroom/bathroom above the kitchen. I’m removing 2 walls to open up the kitchen. I currently have an old drop ceiling in the kitchen. Contractors are suggesting I rip out drop ceiling, do all my renovations and drywall it increasing ceiling height. I have to add a new header and sister in some of the joists. I also have to add one flitch beam. On the side that I’m opening up to the kitchen it currently doesn’t have a drop ceiling and is about 8 feet in width. Do you think it’s possible to sister the joists and install a flitch beam without ripping out the drop ceiling? It’s very old but think I could take out sections and reinstall them. My thought is it’s better to have a drop ceiling so I can take my time with renovations. I’m also not crazy about closing off the ceiling and never being able to do work on it ie bathroom leak, plumbing failure. Drop ceilings are out of style correct? I was thinking of extending the drop ceiling once the kitchen is open and just extending with new panels. I think it would be easier then drywalling and I can continue using kitchen while coming back to finish other parts of project. Thoughts? Are drop ceiling just plain ugly? Don’t they have an assortment of modern panels? I could lift the drop ceiling higher if there’s more room I can’t see how low it is compared to everything else. Also skill wise is a drop ceiling going to be an easier diy and is expense much higher?