100% this. My first manager at my current job was in middle management at the time and is far and away the best manager I’ve ever had and one key reason I’ve stayed at my current job for nearly 10 years. He kept the typical corporate bullshit away and allowed his team to thrive. He’s a director now but thankfully the managers under him have maintained a similar philosophy.
When you reach the screen asking for your Microsoft account info hit shift + F10 to open a command prompt and type in oobe\bypassnro. Your laptop will restart and you’ll start over with the setup process. Disconnect from WiFi/Ethernet and go through the setup process, including setting up a local account.