MJ wrote

>At the moment I am thinking along the lines of this Well
>Shaft as having served more than one purpose

I believe it had purpose, an original purpose.
I think the well has more to do with 'fathers of dead kings'. I believe the term applied is /iti-ntr/ and it existed prior to the pyramid site being chosen. It was the reason for choosing the site. Extensions to the sacred well were necessary in much the same way as the airshafts were extended. The well's extension from below was incorporated into the overall scheme of things for the angle of incline is not dissimilar to the so called Queen's shafts.

An escape route doesn't cut it with me