> there is no way to easily self host images

When you run lxd init there's an option to make the server available over the network (default: No), if enabled you can host images from there.

    lxc remote add myimageserver images.bamboozled.com
    lxc publish myimage
    lxc image copy myimage myimageserver
    
    lxc launch myimageserver:myimage