The active speaker route simplifies the system, but there are a couple of drawbacks. The lack of a pre/integrated amp makes it less input versatile, as you've noted. Even if she's committed to a phono-only system, you need to know the chosen speaker's sensitivity to know if it will work with the turntable phono amp.
They're also less reliable, especially in the smaller sizes. Putting the amp in the speaker box makes heat more of an issue, for both the power & processing circuitry. They're more awkward to handle, so you need to keep away the careless curious.