neirbookeik1, you say "there is no way to raise HDL", but my experience is to the contrary. I'm a long time statin user whose HDL was in the 40s for 25 years. In 2019, I adopted a low carb diet and my HDL has consistently been in the mid-to-high 70's. No added drugs, just lifestyle changes. My understanding is that HDL increases with fat consumption.
My CAC is 1100+, so I have some idea of what you might be feeling.
Good luck.

Not a Physician, but a Chemist at 75 years of age. I had angioplasty back in 1986 at the age of 39. I am asymptomatic and only found out that I had multiple blockage because I did a stress test as part of a physical conditioning test. I suffer from what killed Jim Fix a runner back in the 1980s.
Since then I have always taken statins, as well as blood pressure meds. I have always exercised and believe that is really important. I maintained a low fat diet for a number of years. We moved from Santa Barbara to Orange County back in 2002. After a while I found myself eating more meat products and cheese, and even whole eggs for a while. My weight went up to around 185+. We were part of the Kaiser Perm and I recall my Cardiologist telling me that my disease was progressive and that I was doing everything I should be doing. I was taking a beta blocker, Ace inhibitor, and a Calcium channel blocker.

We moved back to Santa Barbara in 2016 and I got a new primary Physician in a local HMO. He wanted me to see a cardiologist. The cardiologist wanted to do an angiogram. I agreed and when it was over, the Cardiologist said that the blockage was severe and I should pursue CARB. I ended up scheduling open heart surgery, but backed out a couple of days later. I began doing a lot of literature review of various medical periodicals etcetera. In the end, I found some interesting studies comparing medication vs surgery and long term longevity. Because I am asymptomatic there is not a lot of benefit to be gained from open heart surgery in terms of feeling better. Obviously if I had a heart attack that would be a different story.

Bottom line, I changed my diet from a generally low fat diet to no more then 10% of calories from fat. I began to follow Dr. Dean Ornish’s recommendations on reversing heart disease. So since mid 2017 I have become a low fat Vegan. My lovely Wife joined me. I lost weight and ended up at around 165 from around 190. We walk in the hills of Santa Barbara twice a day.
My blood work is much improved.
My HDL has always been at 40 which like yourself is probably a determinant. I had smoked from age 15 to 30 and then quit, but I am sure the damage was done. My cholesterol is around 100, my triglycerides are around 80, and my ldl is around 50, with very low ldl at 20.

To see if I was getting better I had a cardiac PET scan which showed a 20% reversible blockage. I did a cal score same time and the score was around 1000. Two years later I did same tests and nothing changed, but the cal score increased to 1200.
I am taking max 80 mg of statin which helped lower my numbers to what they are now. My cardiologist thinks the high statin may somehow be why higher cal score. However the higher score may not mean more blockage but perhaps density has increased. In the end it is not the old calcified plaque that breaks off and blocks your artery. Generally it is new plaque that is unstable that does you in.
So for now I am continuing to follow a 10% or less of fat in my diet, exercise, take my meds.
I do wonder about whether Vitamin K2 can reduce calcium in the arteries, and if so would the plaque become less stable?
Tell us about chapter 2?