I think you can also simply unlink and sign out of the Microsoft account once logged in to effectively make it a local user, but your user folder is stuck using the username of the Microsoft account, which also gets cutoff after like 8 characters.

I abhor the whole process and it's annoying because there's no other way to create a local account during Windows 11 setup on e.g., a laptop because it knows that the wifi module works and will not let you progress unless you connect to the internet. I tried unplugging my modem and connecting to my internet-less router, but it still refused to progress because it didn't have internet access.

Don't even get me started on the other dark patterns once you actually have a local user setup, like being pushed through part of the OOTB Windows setup again after a major feature update asking you to login into a Microsoft account and making sure you still want all the (user accessible) telemetry off.

The worst part is that I actually like Windows 11 and some of the new features like the tiling layouts when hovering over the maximize button on a window, the new default terminal program, etc. But, the whole thing is entirely soured by dark patterns like the aforementioned forceful use of a Microsoft account, all the extra Edge and Bing crap being shoved down my throat, the poor web-first Windows search, widgets just basically being an MSN feed, Teams starting at login by default on a new install, random apps and games being advertised in the start menu on a new install, etc.

Is the spell to just make local account on Professional Edition.

If you have Home Edition, you have to do use the "no network" option in the OOTB setup.

Pulling the ethernet plug to get a local account doesn't even work anymore. The only trick I know still works is to give it a fake account (like test@test.com).

I've always been installing Pro versions and I've never been forced to use MS account