No, definitely not. Using another tool in the %post section to remove packages is (other than by automation) no different at all from installing a minimal install via kickstart and then running a simple script to use yum or rpm to remove the packages. You have not used *kickstart* to select the packages... you have accepted whatever kickstart would give you and then trimmed "manually."
You mean i've taken a diverse set of tools and adequately accomplished the task you suggested? Sounds like the right way to me :)
You are no farther ahead than we. Note, for example, that you will need the full 570MB of space available for this install, even if you then trim it down to 200MB. You could not install onto a 256MB flash card, for example, or even onto a 512MB flash card.
I never claimed I was farther ahead - you said it was impossible, I disagreed. :)
Care to try again? You have no idea how happy I'd be if you succeed, but sadly (AFAIAC) your first attempt is most definitely not a success.
If you really want to try again - all you need to do is add an installclass to anaconda. Go read up on the installclasses - I think you'll see that's all that is necessary.
-sv