sure, but these threads do pop up every few years.
I doubt it will get easier the next time

thrifteee, I realize that some folks are constrained by their BIOS not supporting boot from USB but FWIW i prefer to never see an installer.
Live+persistence (and leave the HDD power cables disconnected) is how I usually roll.

consider removing the number of window managers that come by default

With the exception of a few iceWM themes which have many/large imagefiles, the wm -related files collectively occupy an insignificant amount of space.
You can verify my above claim by using the ncurses directory usage utility (if not already present, install its 120Kb"ncdu" package from debian repository) to quickly browse your usr / share / themes directories.

MMMMM, I don't think the number of window managers should be decreased, I think if anything, the space gained by trimming things like extra themes (please leave metal2), should be used to add more popular window managers if they can be squeezed in. Many people are used to and maybe have customized menus or setups for a particular window manager or panel, and if a setup for that one exists, they are more likely to try your distro.