You can flash them to boot on an USB drive so any ssd, I have a RPI4 that had the sdcard slot ripped, flashed an sd card to instruct it to boot on usb, held it against the pins and now it boots without any sdcard.

Though I'd agree that if you got none the NUC is the better solution as if you add an ssd and power supply to the PI it becomes as if not more expensive for less power