It doesn’t strictly require TPM in the sense that you can make a modded install disk that does away with the TPM check altogether. People are able to install windows on all sorts of devices now.

Microsoft may have pushed hard on wanting you to have TPM, but it’s more because they didn’t want to deal with the plethora of bugs that come about as a result of inferior hardware.

Windows is still my OS of choice as any misgivings like ads etc can be disabled with a few steps . Is it annoying? Sure, but unlike Macs, I’m able to do something about it when I find something annoying instead of hoping the next OS update deals with it.