I haven't added anything to the discussion because most of it has been well beyond my ken. The takeaway lesson I got is that a bootable backup disk for OS X Lion isn't possible
Tell that to the ~8 service drives around this building that I keep synced with the mother drive in my laptop bag. Two of the partitions are 10.7.2 installed service partition and a 10.7.0 bootable retail installer.
Anyone that tells you it's not possible is inadequately educated
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
