@lcamtuflcamtuf
@wdormannWill Dormann this has been my experience too. I always have to launch a shell, edit the registry, disconnect the network. It's a whole dance to bypass the online account requirement. Though I very recently found this website to generate autounattend.xml files and it's been a game changer for setting up lab VMs. Configure it once to for local accounts, disabling bloat, etc, then use it to install all my lab VMs from then on.
If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://social.authbypass.com/users/rickoooooo/statuses/116189060082826236 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)