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If Microsoft doesn’t want you to use a local account, this means that local accounts are less profitable for them, to the point that they’d rather piss off users than let them to do it.
This means that there’s some hidden cost for you on setting up online accounts. Perhaps it’s trying to lock you further into MS’ environment, perhaps Windows will be futurely SaaS (you effectively spend more money this way, through a thousand transactions instead of one) so they’re “paving” the grounds for it, perhaps they’re selling the shit out of your data. Or a combination of those.
If you’re still insisting on Windows, in 2024, the article mentions another method to bypass this crap:
Another method of bypassing the account lockdown still exists. You simply have to enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO in the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup process, which allows you to skip the connection to the Internet and thus also the link to a Microsoft account.