The only way?
I work with our target group (teachers, students, kids) almost every day and, yes, so far it seems like it is the only way they can (barely) manage.
I would propose that there are other solutions. Off the top of my head, I would think it is entirely practical to slap a front-end (web*** or otherwise) on live-build to provide customized images for that target group.
We can't and have absolutely no desire to provide customized images for each and every school out there. We give teachers a tool so that they can produce a custom school specific image for internal redistribution after they have installed their printers, set up their WLAN access points, etc. Right now I see no way to provide this functionality via a web front-end slapped onto live-build but I would be glad if you can prove me wrong.
You're certainly free to choose another approach, it is just one that we don't support or recommend.
I am fully aware of this and I can live with that.
But, I think if you explored our way, you would discover there are benefits to doing it this way and such technical challenges as there are to rolling it out to your target audience are actually possible to overcome.
We (developers of the lernstick distribution) use live-build to produce the official (generic) image and see all the technical benefits of doing so. It is a fantastic tool for us developers but *absolutely* impossible to use for normal users that barely can distinguish their word processor from their operating system. Yes, this is the target group we currently have to deal with...
Best regards Ronny