The only thing I didn't do is to block MS servers in System32\Drivers\etc\hosts file. This is useless in my opinion, MS can always change them or add new ones.
You said above:
> That's not true. Install and run wireshark then dial all you want, there will always be traffic every other minute or so to one of Redmond's servers from just idling.
I literally did exactly what you said. Shutdown all third party applications on a Windows 10 Pro machine, loaded Wireshark 2.2.3, filtered out all LAN traffic/broadcast traffic/etc and watched. Didn't see any traffic at all going to Microsoft nor anyone else, it is still running now and not a peep.
Now I have no doubt that if I waited long enough I would, since I have Windows Update enabled, use Microsoft for time synchronisation, and a handful of other things. But it definitely isn't "every other minute." I cannot reproduce that.
Is your system volume license or retail?
Maybe Microsoft tracks this and forces my in theory Retail copy to still act like some sort of guinea pig :/
I think the other side effect from all those regedit hacks was issues with Windows updates. In the end, my machine got stuck at installing October patches, rebooting then failing at 99% applying the patch, rebooting again, rolling back the patch, rebooting, trying to install the patch again. The non-stop CPU usage and reboots made me quit Windows for awhile.