I've been working on a lighting and camera boom for the workshop
I hate tripods.
The design is based on a balanced arm lamp I have in my office.
This prototype is at a point where I'm going to use it for a while before making adjustments to the model, but it's doing great for a proof of concept.
Originally I was using all four, but after working with it a bit and changing the springs orientations I found it worked well with just the one set.
I've left the other two in case I change my mind :)
Now you've got me thinking of some sort of quick release system for switching these in case I do want the lean direction to change.....
That would be super useful.
I know this is way later and doesn't really matter, but I really liked your idea and thought about it for a while.
I ended up coming up with this spring "quick caps" for quickly moving, rearranging, or de-tensioning them for maintenance and it has really improved how the whole boom operates.