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You should be able to stick an M.2 adapter card in the PCIe riser

Not if you need to use the PCIe for adding any kind of decent networking though. :(

Still, USB 3.2 probably means some kind of decently reliable USB stick would probably work instead.

Linux will get that, but will the firmware? If not you still need a SATA or USB DOM to put your /boot on. Annoying.

Unless you stick Clover EFI bootloader on a USB/SD card to allow booting from the SSD.