It's not a base plate lift, it's a two post "mobile", so there are flexible hydraulic lines that come out of the back of the columns. No mechanical synchronization of the lift columns, i guess they do it hydraulically.
Good call on putting conduit under the slab. I had that thought as well, but then reconsidered for just running it overhead.
As far as the base goes, yeah 12" seems excessive, but I could see myself putting a larger lift in here at some point in the future, and I sure as shit wouldn't want to pull all this out again.