Yes you have to use what they ship. Because they force you to. You cannot turn off one drive nagging. You cannot turn off the start menu search. When installing windows these days you have to use a Microsoft account and so on.
Yes there are work arounds, but that’s not for the average user. If I need to start tinkering and hack around in registries I might as well use Linux.
I confess I don't have a Microsoft account, and installed without one. I'm not sure how I did that, I guess I just passed on it. Every month or so it after a reboot it prompts me to "finish setting up my computer" and I just "remind me later".
I haven't touched the registry, so that's not in play.
OneDrive doesn't nag me.
As I said earlier this is all anecdotal, clearly your experience is different to mine. This post is just anecdotes, not data, and I'm not suggesting my experience is your experience.
I had to install a temporary windows 10 (not 11) install so that I can unlock the bootloader of a xiaomi phone and install a better rom. I managed to avoid the microsoft account use by not connecting to the internet before the setup was finished. It asked me like 2 or 3 times it looped 2 or 3 times in the select wifi / use MS account screens before giving up and sending me to the local account creation.
Yes there are work arounds, but that’s not for the average user. If I need to start tinkering and hack around in registries I might as well use Linux.