Disadvantages, in addition to the advantages of a live environment?  The later are undeniable, and the size restrictions are probably avoidable (it can be amazing what "thinking outside the box" can allow).

Perhaps I misunderstand you.  If want to provide the current live environment experience w/o an image file, that might be a great idea - I am certainly willing to consider it.  If you want to reduce us to stateless source files (just) so we can be "like other languages," then I start to disagree.

Bill