I have a friend who does quite a bit of contracting work give me advice about this because we have this same issue coming up with a move. He said that depending on the age of the house (anything built before 1980, and possibly through the 80's) likely contains asbestos. Before removal it must be tested and if asbestos is found, treated in a special way so it doesn't endanger the health of the person removing it or ultimately, the family living in the house.
Covering the ceiling with another material would only be "deplorable" if it was tested and found to have asbestos and your were trying to cover it to avoid liability. Asbestos is only released if the ceiling is disrupted in some way and doesn't remain intact. For what it's worth, the contractor we ended up going with said that drywall over it looks terrible, as well as plastering. He recommended spraying 2 coats of thick latex paint to "seal" it. Again this is only if it's tested and there's no asbestos. We needed up having ours scraped off. The ease of removal that people talk about is partly true if there's not coats of paint over it already. Then, getting it wet and it practically falling off, though messy, isn't all that hard. But if there is paint on it, anticipate a lot of scraping and texturing to be done.
He also said that though it's relatively easy (but pretty messy) to remove, that is only true if it hasn't been covered with layers of latex paint. If it's been painted, it has to be scraped off, which can be a whole other can of worms. His recommendation was to plaster over it o cover it with a thin sheet of drywall.
We are going to check into both options and compare costs.
Good luck!