Why is it a bad way to handle things?
I have an alias set up and SDKs enabled. The experience is indistinguishable from a regular install. But you could also layer it onto the os image or install it in user space if you don't like flatpaks for the extra resource usage or something. That's a complete non issue for me though.
That's a good point. I should have said "indistinguishable after some tinkering". You raise a valid complaint, though it's not a deal breaker for me.