I can’t speak to the technical details of the Zeus, being the happy owner of a boat with IPS. But, your point on annual pod oil & filter changes is the common wisdom for IPS as well.
I do kind of agree with you on the point that many who bad mouth pod drives generally have no actual experience.
The newer Volvo configurations have the pods coupled to the engine very similar to a sterndrive configuration. They don’t have to be done that way. Our Sabre has the engines mounted directly under the helm deck and connected to the pods with six (eight?) foot long jack shafts. Our boat was originally designed for shafts, hence this configuration. I know the Sabres with Zeus of the same vintage as ours also used a jack shaft arrangement. So but for the obvious business obstacles, a sea Ray could be equipped with an IPS configuration.