If your Chromebook does not boot into the operating system anymore, you can create a recovery USB flash drive and use it to reinstall a copy of Chrome OS on your computer. Google provides a tool ...
Upgrade your old PC or Intel Mac with Google's new ChromeOS Flex USB Kit, now available on Back Market for just $3 ...
I think the reason we haven't heard many complaints about the doing away of physical media is exactly this. As long as power users can make their own offline media, there's nothing to complain about.