Q1: Does ploplinux-desktop use other linux loaders other than lilo, to make ploplinux bootable on a thumb drive?
. . . lilo appears old school
You don't have to use LILO. Plop Linux has also Grub, Grub 2 and Syslinux installed.
Q2: What's meant by 'lilo -R /mnt'?
. . . assume 'lilo -R /dev/stickname'
In the Plop Linux documentation is it a small 'r'. 'lilo -r /mnt' makes a chroot and installs LILO.
Regards
Elmar