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If one were an RPM diehard, then why not openSUSE?

Good question. I saw the CentOS drama unfolding and Rocky was pitched as a replacement. They held the door so far :) (Hodor from Game of Thrones)

“Rocky mirrors RHEL exactly, aiming to be a bug for bug compatible release with RHEL itself.”

Is openSUSE like this?

It is not. openSUSE is a very different distro, though it does use RPM packages.

No; the distinction is precisely if you want an RPM distro (which OpenSUSE is) or a RHEL-like distro (which it isn't).