Yes, but I was speaking more as an end user: If I want to install nixos now, I’m not waiting for orders and delivery.
Oh, absolutely. I also doubt that outside of “Internet in a box” situation there would be a lot of users that would be onboarded using a pre-burnt thumbdrive. Just because of the delay between “I want to install OS” and getting the usb key in my hands. Running cat iso > /whatever/usb-path-drive is pretty doable.
A repeatable way of generating relevant contents, and perhaps seeding the image via torrent for a release, might be a worthwhile project.
Some discussions here.