I got blind-sided by having Windows 11 pushed onto my workstation

The upgrade is not automatic. You interacted with a prompt to approve the upgrade, you just might not realize it because it may have been on impulse.

I manage Windows installations for tons of folks and I’ve never seen the level of repeated prompting / nagging you’re describing.

For anyone who has wanted to stick with 10, it has been enough to decline the upgrade from the full screen prompt and then choose “Stay on Windows 10 for now” from Windows Update.

It’s possible that your registry changes had something to do with your unusual experience. I run into a lot of folks who complain about OneDrive “ruining their computer” after they’ve tried some obscure method of disabling it when all they had to do was uninstall the program like any other.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty Microsoft does wrong but compared to the Windows 10 shitshow I’ve found they’re actually handling this transition quite well.

Reminder that a lot of these design trends are intended for the average basic user, not power users with strong preferences. They make up the majority and need quite a bit of handholding.