Welcome, @justin8bit!
You’re correct; there isn’t an ideal solution for your use case in-app or via the Tickets API at this time. I played around a bit with custom ticket properties and a ticket-based workflow in my own account, but was unable to get anywhere close to what you’re looking for.
While I expect our product teams plan to expand in-app ticket reporting and feature parity between the Tickets API and other APIs (like Deals) over time, I haven’t heard of any concrete plans recently. I’ll share your feedback internally, though!
At some point, we also plan to add a webhook subscription type for ticket property updates. This would be significant in your use case, since it would remove the need to poll this endpoint. If and when any of these changes come down the pipeline, we’ll update the API changelog. I’ll try to post here as well.
That said, your proposal is the most viable solution I can currently conceive. As you realize, though, there would be some limitations. Since the Tickets API currently doesn’t return property version histories, and this endpoint doesn’t say exactly how the property was changed, you’re correct that your polling would miss some changes made in quick succession.