So you have zero ability to put data on 3.5” floppies even for basic setup? Yeah, in that case you have not that many options. Still, getting a USB floppy drive so that you can write your dos install disks and transfer the files needed for networking would be my first choice instead of buying a more expensive floppy emulator nust so that I can get the machine running. Which you also need to get for every subsequent computer if you decide to build more. Gotek is often even slower for quick and dirty job, because you need to make the image file instead of just dropping the files needed to the floppy.

I also quit using goteks with my Amiga 600 and 1200 ages ago when I found them mostly useless so I put the original drives back. With PCMCIA CF storage you can transfer and drop the data easily and directly to your HDD. If I absolutely must use something from the real floppy, I just write the image to real floppies on the Amiga itself.

But sure, there are several ways you can use these systems. I personally haven’t found floppy emulators very useful for these applications, although I have for example ODEs installed on pretty much every CD based console I have and where those are avalaible.