There are ridges on the oval that lock it in place once the leg-lifter is lowered. In theory, it should all work.
As for the footbraces, that’s the last thing I’m going to work on but I believe I’ve figured out a way to adjust them near the seat. That would be significantly easier than how they are adjusted now (awkwardly reaching down inside the deck.) They are under an extreme amount of force so that mechanism used for adjusting them would need to be sufficiently strong.