Selling cardstock books to cut apart is the way to go. You'll need to reach an economy of scale to make printing less expensive than once can do at home. No one wants to cut up a nice book (or have a nice book with "holey" pages left in it). A pack of cardstock with high quality prints on them don't have that problem. Make the paper acid free with high quality ink that won't fade and advertise the model longevity. I wonder if there exists printable textures. That might be a nice differentiating feature for a physical set too -- slightly embossed brick walls or cobble stone streets.

What about a pre-order arrangement? You then would know how many you need to order.

I think financially though they are stuck at "or". I would love to see both, just as seeing them made available in punch-out plasticard, but that will not happen soon or maybe ever.