I had a look at those threads and can see you've discussed it fairly extensively already. Thanks for bringing this issue to light.
I'd be very surprised if any issues were to come of it though. We used to media shift installation files to USB drives on an almost daily basis in the workshop because we had to install the operating system on machines with faulty optical drives somehow. We even went as far as having a means of installing OS X Snow Leopard via Ethernet. I'm even sure that the setup was explained to Apple at one point as a means of streamlining service and repairs, yet the legality of it never came into question.
Breaking the EULA? Perhaps. Is it necessary to be that stringent about a relatively minor detail? I don't think so. I think it's simply a fact of life that sometimes a hurdle (like a hardware malfunction or limitation) will be placed between the software that we purchase and the machine that we own, and sometimes creative measures are necessary. Especially in a forum like this that deals with older machines and software where issues are more likely to be encountered.
