Is there a Debian 11 'console' image? (or is 'minimal' the smallest?)

Yeah lots of default features pre-installed: Debian 11.x (Bullseye) - Monthly Snapshot - 2023-10-07

This config controls what gets installed: configs/bb.org-debian-bullseye-console-v5.10-ti-armhf.conf · master · BeagleBoard.org / image-builder · GitLab

Feel free to tweak it to your heart’s delight:

git clone https://git.beagleboard.org/beagleboard/image-builder.git
cd ./image-builder/
./RootStock-NG.sh -c bb.org-debian-bullseye-console-v5.10-ti-armhf

Then once it’s built, configure it for your board:

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --img-4gb bone-example --dtb beaglebone --distro-bootloader --enable-cape-universal --enable-uboot-disable-pru --enable-bypass-bootup-scripts

Regards,