Yes, I considered that and agree that it would have been nicer! I didn't pursue it for this project because my jury-rigged SD boot was working fine and I wanted to move on to other parts of the system.
SD cards are pretty unreliable so it might be good to take it out of the loop at some point. Most field failures I’ve seen for products I develop have been related to SD cards dying during power loss or falling out due to vibration.