I suggest that Norton Bootable Recovery Tool is not required to start entering the product key. Other similar solutions such as Kaspersky Rescue Disk, BitDefender Rescue CD, Panda Rescue Disk etc. do not require inclusion in the product key and therefore can use them without having the software these companies. In my opinion, Norton Bootable Recovery Tool should always perform to be available to everyone, whether you have Norton or not. In addition, the critical point, you can not remember the product key or if you have an electronic version Norton product witchout box does not have access to it, because access to the drive where the key is stored may be hindered by virus attack or damage.
I see that you would like to re-visit the discussion about this NBRT topic. Please add your detailed comments and kudos to the original ideas here: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Product-Ideas/NBRT-suggestion-should-be-used-for-free/idc-p/396134#M1467 and here: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Product-Ideas/NBRT-suggestion-temporary-free-serials/idi-p/218950.
Thanks for telling us what you want to see in NBRT!