I would not know, never tried it. I will have to take your word for it.

But let's consider what might make things "not work" in a generic setup, shall we?
As far as I can tell, those are:

1. Different hardware. I have SuperDuper SonoBlaster 2000 that is directly supported by the kernel while you have UberCool AudioBlaster 19500 that needs additional drivers to work.
2. Conflicting packages. I have a load of cr@p preinstalled by the OEM while you have none of those, but instead have half a dozen daemons and system managers you installed yourself.
3. ... umm... ahh... err... that's it!

"Android" is an OS that runs on a variety of devices, all with different hardware, features, installed packages etc. Any of #1, #2 or both may cause issues. Yet it (usually) works fine right out of the box. Magic?

But you have a blank OS image (i.e. #2 cannot apply) for a single specific device (i.e. #1 cannot apply either).

So what could possibly cause problems and make X or Y not work?
No way it could be that the image is cr@p. Oh no, sir.

Here I have to disagree again. A freshly flashed N900 works perfectly fine. Or at least did when the image was released. You may want to tweak it further to your liking but you do not have to. There is a HUGE difference.