So, long term (and this may be sooner than that) we want some kind of fxa-email-server or equivalent. This feels like the proper end solution to me.

For now ... how about I do a mix of both of your suggestions. I'll seed the templates as @zaach suggests with a quick script (not during deployment) regularly and check them in for reading on startup as @dannycoates suggests.

It sounds like all of this is now a temporary solution before whatever other email server we have, so it almost seems like we're in the "let's just make it work and get on with doing the real fix" situation - which I'd much prefer to do now.

The aye's say "aye" and the nays say "nay". :)