With the availability of the powerful micro controller in the modern era, people tend to forget the ordinary ICs. All the creativity has been replaced by the programming codes. This article illustrates the usefulness of the classic 555 timer as a Delta Modulator ADC.
Code is cheaper, infinitely copyable (with little to no cost per copy), and generally you end up with reduced part count. I also take issue with a statement that implies coding is not creative. I strongly beg to differ...
BTW - your project is still a pretty cool application of 555s - I hope you do well!