It looks like OP is trying to avoid the time/bother of reformatting the disk.
Given how an OS is installed onto a PI (by nuking the drive contents and replacing them entirely at the block level) the OP has probably spent more time asking the question and reading the answers than they would have just installing the OS.
As for "from a simplicity POV, there's (or would be) a lot to be said for not having to reformat at all", it really depends on what the drive is, what you're going to be using it with, and what you're going to be using it for.
Bare drives usually come unformatted (SD and uSD cards excepted). Consumer targeted USB drives (SSD or spinning rust) often come preformatted to FAT32 or exFAT depending on drive capacity. Or NTFS or something MacOS specific depending on target audience.
If you want something universal, FAT32 is still your best bet. A lot more devices (digital cameras, games consolse, car radios, ...) can read that than can read exFAT or NTFS.
But that's my take on it, yours is obviously different.
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Mon Dec 23, 2024 6:45 pm