Looking for Another Panel

That would entirely depend on the type of panel you’re inquiring about. If you somehow manged to procure a Simplex 4100 or an EST2/3, it doesn’t matter how many passwords you know, you won’t be able to set up the panel for your application without proprietary software and a programming dongle. Smaller units like the Simplex 4005 or the Kidde addressable panels might be programmable from the display as long as you have the codes.
The NFW-100-2 that you said you’d be purchasing is able to be programmed from the front panel and I believe it’s compatible with PS-Tools which is Fire-Lite’s freely available programming utility.

I might actually get the IO-64 since I am doing the eLearning for it. If you want to know what that is, here it is: https://learning.edwardsfire.com/course/view.php?id=286. So far, I have gotten every question right on the lesson reviews.

The IO-64 appears to be programmable from the front panel, so long as you know all the passcodes. Be aware that since this panel uses EST devices and technology, you will inevitably have to deal with mapping, so definitely read up on how EST’s mapping addressable protocol works; get to a place where you’re comfortable explaining it up and down before you actually try to work with it. Taking the official online training is excellent, and if you haven’t already, read the entire contents of the installer’s manual here. We cannot emphasize that enough, because the manual shows the proper way to use the panel, and also gives explicit definitions and instructions for all of the panel’s features, as well as an extensive list of compatible devices. The IO-64 would definitely be a good panel to get if you want to get into EST stuff, but my previous caution stands; given that EST is proprietary, you will find support harder to come by, and typically peripherals (such as smoke detectors and pull stations) can run a bit expensive compared to the equivalent Honeywell devices.