Thanks for the suggestions! On the subject of RAM requirements, for i386 systems (the case in my original message) a minimum of 128 MB is still mentioned in https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch03s04.html.en Thus it might make sense to automatically cater for such low-mem i386 systems, or at least mention those fstab adjustments in the installation instructions.
Best regards J Esteves