To change the templates for the boot menus, so you don't have to edit them on every build, look in /usr/lib/refractasnapshot

when you say add boot option nocomponents=xinit, do you mean to add it as a parameter at the boot splash screen as an alternative to removing 0140-xinit?

That file is created by /lib/live/config/0140-xinit

You could remove that file before making a snapshot, or comment out a few lines of code in that script. I think it will also work to add a boot option:

nocomponents=xinit

I usually just use rsync to backup but thought this refractasnapshot might be a good alternative.

edit: may have narrowed down the culprit, unsure. Does refracta snapshot just use an autologin feature or rely on user settings like .xinitrc ?
if .xinitrc i use a bin script called startdwm so .xinitrc doesnt have exec dwm

the script is located in ~/bin

contents =

#!/bin/sh

while true; do
    # Log stderror to a file 
    dwm 2> ~/.dwm.log
    # No error logging
    #dwm >/dev/null 2>&1
done