You had to fight the install process to get that local account, though.

The hoops you have to jump through to use a local account are a prime example of user hostility. Sure it’s technically possible, but only if you are power user that searches online and figures out how. That’s the general feeling I have with Windows these days, it is technically possible to get it to work the way I want, but it generally feels like I’m fighting an adversary. Sure it’s currently possible to win, but it’s definitely not a good feeling, and not moving in the right direction.

Note if you installed with a local account and expect Bitlocker to work: make sure to actually enable it. With a local account.

Bitlocker may state that it's on, but by default, it doesn't encrypt the drive unless you log in to a Microsoft account or manually add a key protector.

This is documented on a Microsoft site somewhere, but it's shit like this that make me wary of the "bypass Microsoft's shit" approach; the bypass methods often lead to behaviour that Microsoft never bothered to test and has side effects they don't bother to warn you about.