The Debian-Live approach also provides some good opportunities. First and foremost, the very easy remastering makes it efficient to run with no persistent store quite often. For instance, upon remastering, I just start without the store, and the image I run is union-mounted with the persistence file and copied&compressed. Then I have to boot something else to copy the new squashfs image in place, but that's all that has to be done outside the system.
Boot the new image without persistence, create a new persistence file.
For further adaptations, the new persistence file can be mounted in an instance run under kvm, programs can be added and settings tweaked for an eventual new remastering.
Storing the series of squashfs-compressed images, one can always go back in this process if needed.
A-Tech 256GB 4x 64GB 4Rx4 PC4-19200 ECC Load Reduced LRDIMM Server Memory RAM
$287.96
A-Tech 8GB DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM 204-Pin Memory RAM PC3L DDR3L 1x 8G
$13.99
Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) XMP
$35.99
HyperX FURY DDR3 8GB 16GB 32GB 1600 MHz PC3-12800 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 240pin
$12.90
8GB PC3L-12800S 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 RAM | Grade A
$12.00
Crucial DDR3L 16GB 1600 2x 8GB PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM Memory RAM PC3 16G DDR3
$21.50
Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) Kit DDR3L 1600MHz PC3-12800 UDIMM Desktop 240-Pin CL11 RAM
$23.33
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800)
$79.95
HyperX FURY DDR4 16GB 3200 MHz PC4-25600 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 288pin 2x 16GB
$127.20
HyperX FURY DDR4 8GB 16GB 32GB 3200MHz PC4-25600 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 288pins
$72.93