[LocalPCGuy]

This may have been true when Win10 just came out, but it isn't anymore. You can schedule your updates (and if you don't, they try to schedule them for you in non-use hours), there are ways to bypass the MS account creation and just use a local account, I haven't seen an ad in my start menu in ages, even after multiple large system updates and there is not a single reference to Cortana in my Task Manager or Services (I turned Cortana off in settings).

Granted, I'm aggressive at turning off startup items, managing what services run on boot, and so on, but my point is, each of the things you mention may have been true at one time, but they are not necessarily true today.

edit to note: I'm not defending Microsoft's use of dark patterns, they definitely do push them out and then sometimes back off if there is enough pushback. And that is bad, and should be called out. Just aiming for accurate information here.

[redml]

they've lately been trying to get me to make a cloud account to login. i remember when i installed it i made an "offline account", but now after a few updates im occationally getting a nag to "finish setting up your computer" before i can start using it which leads to a place wanting me to make an account which I now have to cancel out of rather than have a permanent method of removing it.

it's just a matter of time at this point