"it's possible to reconfigure u-boot (etc) to have the OS on the Card's
micro-sd."
Not sure if this helps, but I read that Towboot supports an additional
feature:
"On boards with dedicated storage for the firmware, the/Tow-Boot/build
should be independent from, and not care about the
Open Source Voices is a great podcast. I've listened to Lukes, Maddog
Halls' and Chris's interviews. Still getting around to listening to more.
I listened to this whole podcast yesterday. 1:10:00-1:20:00 worth a listen
(even before that) (it mentions EOMA68): https://www.opensourcevoices.org/13