We used a "Zephyr Breeze II" with our Bosch induction cooktop. Powerful, quiet enough, 3 speeds, and nice lighting. Ours is 36" wide.

kaseki, thanks for the information.

Can you help me figure out if I need that much collection area, given our use case (per my OP)? I'm not opposed to dealing with MUA modifications, but obviously if I don't need them, I'd rather not put in the time and money. If additional MUA is needed, is it crazy to look at a separate MUA system independent of HVAC near the cooktop? Basically a direct inbound duct with a powered damper and an interior nice looking vent? Perhaps on the large amount of wall space above the cabinets/hood (ceiling is 12 - 16' slanted)?

In terms of ducting and noise, I think I could probably get a wall-mounted exterior remote blower by our HOA, but seriously doubt I could get away with an external chase of what would have to be 10-15' up to the roof area. Would it be worth doing a standard top vent, running ducting inside (hiding it with an extendable cover or woodwork) up a few feet with an 8" silencer, before elbowing outside to a (vertical wall) remote blower? Or would that still leave the remote blower too close straight-line wise? Absent that being feasible or worth it, I was looking at the Victory Twister, which appears to have a solid 42" hood with a back vent option, which would remove the 90deg elbow and result in a max 12" straight duct out. I'm assuming in this scenario, an external blower would make no sense? Any other issues you see with such a straight and short duct scenario?

On a totally unrelated note, it seems most of the higher-end hoods have the light and fan controls on the underside/bottom which seems really inconvenient and likely to get filthy quicky. Also, having to bend down and crane up to try to adjust them, especially while something is cooking, seems unsafe. Am I missing something?

All things considered, what specific brands you would recommend?

Yes, normally the MUA is independent because the existing HVAC is presumably tuned for what it is and what it has to do.

For fitting silencers, see Fantech LD-8 dimensions: https://www.fantech.net/en-us/products/fans-and-accessories/inline-duct-fans/accessories-for-inline-duct-fans/silencers?sku=411125#tech-specs-ecom-dimension-data. With the silencer, to first order duct length to the blower is not an issue, noise-wise.

With my cooking, I haven't noticed any grease build-up on the controls of my Wolf Pro Island hood. Airflow should pull the cooking plume into the baffles as it gets to the vicinity of the hood entry aperture. This is the reason for the higher suggested flow rate.

I can't recommend brands I haven't used. Best to delve through the many threads here for hints about good and bad. Keep in mind that what you are attempting to do in a residential setting is achieve commercial cooking ventilation performance with less ceiling height. Goals may be better understood by reading the first dozen or so pages of this tract: https://www.tagengineering.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf

I want to focus on sound level/quality only for a moment so my brain doesn't explode. If we did a hood with either baffle-based filtering (eg Wolf, Imperial, etc) or none (eg Vent a Hood), with a standard top vent going immediately up to a FanTech LD8 silencer, then immediately to a 90deg elbow out to a remote blower (eg Vent a Hood RM1000 1000cfm), would that be noticeably quieter at any given airflow level than the same hood with an internal blower of the same capacity? An internal or exterior chase are not an option.

So,

1) Vent a Hood -> LD 8 silencer (~24" of vertical rise) -> 90 elbow thru exterior wall -> remote 1000 CFM blower

vs

2) Vent a Hood with internal 1000 CFM blower -> 90 elbow thru exterior wall

Would option 1 be noticeably quieter than option 2?

Because I haven't owned a VaH Magic Lung® I can't comment with certainty, but I can assert that I expect the baffled hood with external blower and intermediate silencer to be quieter. The VaH has the blower(s) right at the cook's ear, so they aren't going to be quiet at full power. Here are some relevant threads ­­­— credit @clinresga :

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2324336/vent-hoods-and-noise-the-real-scoop-on-vah

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6417748/hood-depth-question#n=10

@opaone may have commented on this also, but I didn't save the link, so a search of his body of work here may help.