OS X installers boot from CD's, so can disk utilities. OS X' disk utility (located on the installer CD boots from a CD. Others don't because of several reasons, none of which have anything to do with the possibility of booting from a CD.
I don't think a mid-2003 970 Power Mac release will preclude OS 9 booting on new machines in January. One has to be extremely optimistic to hope for 970s at MWSF. Some say new Power Macs will have hardware RAIDS standard, which would preclude OS 9 booting, but I don't know how plausible such a scenario is.
Some of these theories can fit with established information, while others cannot. It is very likely that Apple is refusing simply to write new enablers for the updated hardware that's coming out in January. Remember, very minor hardware updates require new OS 9 enablers. Yet, on the other hand, it has been reported that OS 9 will be CD bootable, and if that's the case, then the necessary enablers would be present.
In any case, we're going to be compelled to upgrade our utilities so that they are compliant (what else is new?), and life will go on. The true disposition of OS 9's status on new machines (and the cause thereof) will have to come as a surprise. I'm not too worried about it, I suppose.
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Some of these theories can fit with established information, while others cannot. It is very likely that Apple is refusing simply to write new enablers for the updated hardware that's coming out in January. Remember, very minor hardware updates require new OS 9 enablers. Yet, on the other hand, it has been reported that OS 9 will be CD bootable, and if that's the case, then the necessary enablers would be present.
In any case, we're going to be compelled to upgrade our utilities so that they are compliant (what else is new?), and life will go on. The true disposition of OS 9's status on new machines (and the cause thereof) will have to come as a surprise. I'm not too worried about it, I suppose.