ductless is more or less 'spot cooling / spot heating'.

It does well in small room areas when sized properly. Typically the mini split head or indoor unit is hung on exterior wall. They also come in cassette style to be mounted in ceiling.

If you have more than one room to be cooled / heated you will need additional heads (ductless zoned) or separate ductless systems to accommodate those additional separate room areas of the structure.

The cassette style is low profile looks like normal air vent in ceiling of where it's placed. Problem is structural challenges for this to work.

While you could install a head on an interior wall it makes the installation that much harder and refrigerant piping design / condensate that much more difficult as well. Also if you decide on ductless, you should be sure to address maintenance requirements of the system at that time as well.

I have lots of mini splits. My floors are very cold over a crawl space and the ceilings are 9'. The mini splits make great ceiling heaters when left to themselves to modulate the blower speed as they reach set point. Keeping the blower speed set higher or ceiling fans help. If my home was better insulated, it might not be a problem.

You have a heat pump now? Is natural gas available? If so, investigate a natural gas furnace. That will be much less costly to install for heat.

With ducts in the open, it seems like regulating the air flow to reach comfort and balance should be relatively easy. Some manual dampers should be able to redirect more air to the bedrooms when needed for cooling and less when needed for heat. Additional ducts or larger ducts can easily be installed if more air flow is needed. 1400 sq feet is small for two systems. Bringing some of the ductwork down near floor level would be a big help if you can do it.

If you need to stick with heat pumps, a couple of mini splits systems will work, one for the bedrooms and one for the big space. A high wall unit might work in the big space with the fans. With the bedrooms, you might consider a minimally-ducted mini split. (That could handle the unmentioned bathroom too unless you have an outhouse.)

Two systems will help with comfort, but don't be seduced with thoughts of saving fuel if the home is well insulated and air sealed. If it is, heat moves much faster from room to room than to outdoors.