They have a lot of water heaters in attics here. Even with emergency
pans under them, if they leak, often the ceiling will come down. It
depends on how bad the leak is. Then they usually get moved to a
garage or laundry room.

The self cleaning water heaters like the "Sand Blaster" have a curved
dip tube that swirls the water in the bottom of the tank when you draw
hot water. The sediment comes back out the faucets as disolved solids.
This way you don't have to drain the tank. It would be very hard to
change the curved dip tube but the anode rod should not be a problem if
there is enough clearance above the tank.

Stretch