There's really nothing wrong with the stock lift pump. The time when an e pump makes life easier is when you run out of fuel or get a bad batch of fuel that you want to get rid of in a hurry. I have always found the factory mechanical pump to be very hard to change but I think I'm in the minority on that account.
This truck isn't hard to prime at all compared to the other 85 I had which was nearly impossible to prime. I don't know how everyone else does it but I removed the vacuum pump on mine and changed it that way, took about 15 minutes. Hardest part was making sure that the weird arm on the new pump went under the cam lobe which I assume it did because it's running fine.