While it would be possible to do that... to be quite honest, if the current install process is enough to drive you away then you'd have a horrible time using it

While it would be possible to do that... to be quite honest, if the current install process is enough to drive you away then you'd have a horrible time using it. NixOS is definitely the perfect OS for fiddlers. Practically nothing is usable without at least some minor tweaks, but once you've tweaked it you won't later lose those tweaks. For anyone who stopped enjoying that after redoing the same config for the fifth time, it's great.