One question I wonder about is whether or not you can remove the pre-installed .Net-versions that are baked into Win8, install .Net 4.0 Client Profiles, install and successfully run CLoD and THEN install .net 4.5. Will test this, although I'm somewhat sure that the system will break horrendously

Wouldn't surprise me that .Net 4.5 is so heavily integrated into the system that it'll never come out.