Options for interior brick walls damaged by rotary hammer
Crumbling mortar means it will be easier to remove the really bad bricks and replace them. You could replace only the worst and call the rest of them "rustic." I found reclaimed bricks for free that matched what was used in my 1865 home.

Is that pipe just a vent pipe for only (what I assume was) the kitchen sink that used to be there? If so, you could remove the pipe and replace it with an air-admittance valve inside the sink cabinet (if your building code allows that). Then patch the carnage the pipe made. Maybe patch every other or every third brick at a time.

I'm no mason and maybe we were just unlucky, or maybe this only happens to chimneys, but I had bad experience with plaster over brick. Parts of the chimney were covered with plaster (some also with beaver board) which apparently trapped moisture and caused them to rot and crumble into dust, leaving HUGE holes hidden behind the plaster.