So I've looked into the OME 2.5 now, also, and it looks like it comes with the spacers to drop the tranny down a bit too. Does dropping the tranny eliminate the need for a SYE? It seems that installing one or a new drive shaft may be a bit excessive for such a small lift.
A big issue of why transfer case drops often don’t work for YJ Jeeps after they’ve been lifted, is because the manufacturer either supplies too large/steep shims for the application, or doesn’t supply them at all. For example, Rough Country sells their 2.5” kit and they ship the springs with 6° shims with no explanation of why. It ends up working perfectly for a SYE and double cardan driveshaft, but if you keep the stock shaft and run a transfer case drop, 6° shims are WAY too steep. And on the other hand, you can’t run the lift as they sell it either, because 6° shims are too steep when not changing anything else.
The transfer case drop itself will angle the pinion down around 2°, so that’s the angle that needs to be added to the springs to compensate. OME includes the spacers and the shims and they are a perfect match for each other, so it should work perfectly fine.
I still push for SYE a lot of the time I make recommendations simply because it’s a stronger, improved setup, and doesn’t negate any of the lift that was just added. But with the proper OME transfer case drop kit, you should certainly be able to get by without any serious tough wheeling/abuse.
In short, it should be fine and work great as they sell it for a medium user.