> here should be a minimalist / developer centric version of Windows that has no ridiculous services on or even installed on the OS, has sane update installation (once a month or so is fine, unless critical).
Sure, but since when has that been an obstacle ...
My home PC has a license for W10 Pro, but I run LTSB instead. Trading less "features"/more power over my OS of LTSB with a possible improper licensing violation is a gray area I'm willing to admit and apply.
The LTSB edition.