Caravanistan

Kurut uses such extreme levels of salt that I expect it is safe, but I also met a Swiss cheesemaker who was teaching locals in Arslanbob how to make cheese, and she said that based on what she had seen in terms of how kurut is made, there's no way she would eat it.

You can get things like oats and buckwheat/grechka in supermarkets in Bishkek and possibly smaller places as well. Not dehydrated meals, though.

Starting in Iran would be a much better idea.

Nomads raise animals, so at its most basic meat and dairy are nomadic foods. Potatoes and wheat-based foods are the typical starches.

Most cyclists stock up in larger towns since village markets are unpredictable.

Seems to be Kazakh-Dungan ethnic conflict that started similar to the Osh riots in 2010 or the 2008 Shaoguan incident in China: rumors of the ethnic minority doing something bad to an ethnic majority lead to massive reprisals. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCentralAsia/comments/f0tjiy/whats_going_on_in...

Plov isn't really a nomadic food.

Why not enter Pakistan via Iran?

Oh, my mistake: thought you were asking about the stretch between Ishkashim and Langar. I'm guessing it's not considered safe, as I believe the Afghan consulate in Khorog has been restricting their visas to entry only at Ishkashim.

Also, most travel in Central Asia (outside Uzbekistan) is by share taxi or marshrutka, and they normally don't stop very much. Maybe once every 3 hours.

You should be able to find lots of reports on the forums here from people who have been to the Afghan Wakhan. The front page of the Afghanistan forum you posted in has multiple reports.