#TIL there is a flavor of #PuppyLinux based on vanilla #Debian (not the traditional Ubuntu), released with weekly updates:
https://vanilla-dpup.github.io/
Wow, how did I miss that? It looks like exactly how I wanted to have Puppy working before I started playing with Alpine on a USB. 100% will try it out this evening when I'm back from work.
Apparently, it even works with apt!