I purchased a used Epson 9900 seven years ago just to do canvas and I use the Fredrix 777.
The project was to print a hotel full of canvas which I printed and coated then had dry mounted and framed. I probably put 130-140 rolls through it mainly 44 inch.
One of the main reasons for me going with the 9900 was the built-in cutter for the canvas. For about double the cost of adding a rotary printer to my 9800, I could get a whole new printer.
I did have the printer serviced a couple of years ago and it works even better than when I first put it to use. Since the initial canvas project several years ago, I'm still doing it, though only a few per month at the very most. The 9900 still prints on the Fredrix well and there are no issues with the printer other than having to do a cleaning every couple of weeks, especially if the printer isn't in use.
The Fredrix seems a little more available now than when I started and is available through LexJet.
As for coating, it's a must, IMO. Uncoated seems to scuff easily, especially if there's a lot of areas with lots of ink coverage. Coating seems to enrich the colors, add UV protection, make the surface more consistent (adds a finished appearance), makes the image more durable and seems to make it easier to stretch. Regarding the durability, it makes it easier for maintenance when all you need is a damp sponge to wipe the dust off.
For coating, I'm using Clear Shield, Type C LL Semi-Gloss. There's a range from gloss to matt and you can mix them to get something in-between. I was using a trough-and-roller system when I was doing the hotel, but since I only do 3-5 at a time now, I simply use a 6-8 inch foam paint roller and a tray.
My technique is to add about 20% filtered/distilled water to the Clear Shield to help thin it out, run it through a screen after stirring into a tray and then give the canvas a quick coat spreading out the coating quickly and as evenly as I can. Once the coat is dry, I do a second coat. I'm doing it all on a table that's just a little narrower than my widest canvas. If I've got several to do, I use clothespins and small wooden dowels at each end to keep the canvas from curling and messing the coating and hang it up.
With practice, one can get pretty good at coating small-run canvas this way. Clean-up is much easier and faster than using the tray-roller system and takes but a couple of minutes. If you are careful with your foam rollers, clean them up well and keep them soaked when you put them away and let them dry slowly, they will work for several coating sessions.
Most of my production is stretched so learning that skill is a bonus and there's a bunch of YouTube videos to show you how.
Canvas gives you a little satisfaction of hand-crafting your work similar to what I enjoyed doing in a darkroom to finish, mount, frame and present my work, though I feel the canvas is much faster and easier and is more hands-on at least in my experience.
Here's a few of the 40x60-72-inch canvas I did a few years ago. I think the most I could coat in a long day was from 24-40, depending upon the size. The color images were 20x30 to 24x26 prints and it looks like I'm drying from 12-15 images on that rack. That job took a couple of years and my client is still thrilled with the installation.