If you are using a Minecart with a furnace, you don't need powered rails. The lever is here to initialize the contraption—essentially turning this set of blocks into a machine. (It's needed for the cart assembler.)
Yeah, you're right. In survival mode, when I use the schematic cannon and place a clipboard or book to print the ingredients, there is no Minecart on the list. (You can easily check if you have all the required ingredients in the chest next to the schematic cannon before building the contraption.) You have to add the Minecart manually in the cart assembler.
There are two methods for powering a contraption on rails: using normal rails with a furnace cart (which requires fuel) or using powered rails (which require a redstone signal) with a regular Minecart.
This is strange because I printed it in creative mode, and it had a Minecart.