Personally i would like to have a "Alternative Downloads" section to get access to a minimal install iso, its a nice thing to have... i don't know if it's hard to maintain or something...
Would be nice to an i3 user to have a feature like that. Would be nice to a KDE Plasma tester, just download a netinstall with the proper integrity check and install, instead of using testing isos without a integrity check.
Also, besides we can consider this a "technical preciosity": less packages = less vulnerabilities to be explored.
I really like Solus, it's an independent distro focused on the desktop... no companies getting in the way, no mix of interests... but i must confess that i feel like sometimes Solus overprotect the user... i feel like, if that decision of do not produce a netinstall iso is based on pragmatism, than it's fine, but if its based on protecting a certain philosophy, then it's an exaggeration.
Obs: i also agree that for the average user an "out of the box" mindset is better, so, if a netinstall is hard to maintain, maybe the best decision is to extend this idea to future, when probably Solus will have more man work... i agree it's not an necessary thing.
Obs2: I really hope that the new Solus package manager will solve this "orphan packages" problems in the proper way, without harming the average user.
In the end, i think we should trust Solus leaders. They should know how much Solus can handle "non-essential" stuff, and how much that could hurt or take out the focus of the project or not. For now, for normal installations i keep my eyes on Solus, for minimal ones i keep my eyes on Void Linux or maybe Debian.