Verified on OCP 4.9.0-0.nightly-2021-08-07-175228 on AWS IPI cluster.
NFD nodefeaturediscovery instance was created when the CR was deployed from yaml file with oc apply -f and with the image name removed.

# cat  010_namespace.yml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-nfd

# oc apply -f 010_namespace.yml

# cat 020_operatorgroup.yml 
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  generateName: openshift-nfd-
  name: openshift-nfd-ci
  namespace: openshift-nfd
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
  - openshift-nfd

# oc apply -f 020_operatorgroup.yml 

# cat 030_operator_sub.yml_qe-app-registry-nfd_channel_set_to_4.9
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: nfd
  namespace: openshift-nfd
spec:
  channel: "4.9"
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: nfd
  source: qe-app-registry
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace

# oc apply -f 030_operator_sub.yml_qe-app-registry-nfd_channel_set_to_4.9

# oc get clusterserviceversion.operators.coreos.com/node-feature-discovery-operator.v4.9.0 -n openshift-nfd -o json | jq -r '.metadata.annotations."alm-examples"' | jq .[0] | jq --arg ns openshift-nfd '.metadata.namespace = $ns' | jq --arg  ns openshift-nfd '.spec.namespace = $ns' > nfd_cr_4.9_080921.json

# cp nfd_cr_4.9_080921.json nfd_cr_4.9_operand_image_removed_080921.json

# edit file to remove the image from: nfd_cr_4.9_operand_image_removed_080921.json

# oc apply -f nfd_cr_4.9_operand_image_removed_080921.json
nodefeaturediscovery.nfd.openshift.io/nfd-instance created

# oc get pods -n openshift-nfd
NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nfd-controller-manager-7946d664dd-g94zv   2/2     Running   0          33m
nfd-master-86kmj                          1/1     Running   0          9s
nfd-master-8jxvf                          1/1     Running   0          9s
nfd-master-nltgj                          1/1     Running   0          9s
nfd-worker-28f6z                          1/1     Running   0          9s
nfd-worker-nscqx                          1/1     Running   0          9s
nfd-worker-w5lj8                          1/1     Running   0          9s

# cat nfd_cr_4.9_operand_image_removed_080921.json
{
  "apiVersion": "nfd.openshift.io/v1",
  "kind": "NodeFeatureDiscovery",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "nfd-instance",
    "namespace": "openshift-nfd"
  },
  "spec": {
    "customConfig": {
      "configData": "#    - name: \"more.kernel.features\"\n#      matchOn:\n#      - loadedKMod: [\"example_kmod3\"]\n#    - name: \"more.features.by.nodename\"\n#      value: customValue\n#      matchOn:\n#      - nodename: [\"special-.*-node-.*\"]\n"
    },
    "operand": {
      "imagePullPolicy": "Always",
      "namespace": "openshift-nfd"
    },
    "workerConfig": {
      "configData": "core:\n#  labelWhiteList:\n#  noPublish: false\n  sleepInterval: 60s\n#  sources: [all]\n#  klog:\n#    addDirHeader: false\n#    alsologtostderr: false\n#    logBacktraceAt:\n#    logtostderr: true\n#    skipHeaders: false\n#    stderrthreshold: 2\n#    v: 0\n#    vmodule:\n##   NOTE: the following options are not dynamically run-time configurable\n##         and require a nfd-worker restart to take effect after being changed\n#    logDir:\n#    logFile:\n#    logFileMaxSize: 1800\n#    skipLogHeaders: false\nsources:\n#  cpu:\n#    cpuid:\n##     NOTE: whitelist has priority over blacklist\n#      attributeBlacklist:\n#        - \"BMI1\"\n#        - \"BMI2\"\n#        - \"CLMUL\"\n#        - \"CMOV\"\n#        - \"CX16\"\n#        - \"ERMS\"\n#        - \"F16C\"\n#        - \"HTT\"\n#        - \"LZCNT\"\n#        - \"MMX\"\n#        - \"MMXEXT\"\n#        - \"NX\"\n#        - \"POPCNT\"\n#        - \"RDRAND\"\n#        - \"RDSEED\"\n#        - \"RDTSCP\"\n#        - \"SGX\"\n#        - \"SSE\"\n#        - \"SSE2\"\n#        - \"SSE3\"\n#        - \"SSE4.1\"\n#        - \"SSE4.2\"\n#        - \"SSSE3\"\n#      attributeWhitelist:\n#  kernel:\n#    kconfigFile: \"/path/to/kconfig\"\n#    configOpts:\n#      - \"NO_HZ\"\n#      - \"X86\"\n#      - \"DMI\"\n  pci:\n    deviceClassWhitelist:\n      - \"0200\"\n      - \"03\"\n      - \"12\"\n    deviceLabelFields:\n#      - \"class\"\n      - \"vendor\"\n#      - \"device\"\n#      - \"subsystem_vendor\"\n#      - \"subsystem_device\"\n#  usb:\n#    deviceClassWhitelist:\n#      - \"0e\"\n#      - \"ef\"\n#      - \"fe\"\n#      - \"ff\"\n#    deviceLabelFields:\n#      - \"class\"\n#      - \"vendor\"\n#      - \"device\"\n#  custom:\n#    - name: \"my.kernel.feature\"\n#      matchOn:\n#        - loadedKMod: [\"example_kmod1\", \"example_kmod2\"]\n#    - name: \"my.pci.feature\"\n#      matchOn:\n#        - pciId:\n#            class: [\"0200\"]\n#            vendor: [\"15b3\"]\n#            device: [\"1014\", \"1017\"]\n#        - pciId :\n#            vendor: [\"8086\"]\n#            device: [\"1000\", \"1100\"]\n#    - name: \"my.usb.feature\"\n#      matchOn:\n#        - usbId:\n#          class: [\"ff\"]\n#          vendor: [\"03e7\"]\n#          device: [\"2485\"]\n#        - usbId:\n#          class: [\"fe\"]\n#          vendor: [\"1a6e\"]\n#          device: [\"089a\"]\n#    - name: \"my.combined.feature\"\n#      matchOn:\n#        - pciId:\n#            vendor: [\"15b3\"]\n#            device: [\"1014\", \"1017\"]\n#          loadedKMod : [\"vendor_kmod1\", \"vendor_kmod2\"]\n"
    },
    "namespace": "openshift-nfd"
  }
}

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (OpenShift Container Platform 4.9 extras update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2021:3760