Well, the nice thing with DSFs is that they decode into a RAM image that you just boot on an ARM attached to an AICA and they play, no intervention necessary. I can post a decoded bin if you want to give it a shot in your own code
As far as feedback the manatee.drv reads every slot's LP bit all the time but it doesn't seem like it's used for the sequenced music in DSFs (I imagine that's more useful for streaming stuff off the disc into the AICA's RAM - the SCSP had a similar mechanism used for that reason).
BTW, if I may ask, the Dreamcast BIOS in MESS currently hits a SLEEP instruction almost right away, and I didn't notice any obvious interrupt sources being enabled before then. Is it crashing to indicate it's displeasure or am I just missing something?