I'll vouch for this. I have a USB drive set up with Ventoy, which has the ability to install its TPM certs when booting from USB. It has a couple Linux ISOs and one Win11. It also has a Ventoy config tying that ISO to an autounattended XML built from that exact site.

The result is an install with no copilot/cortana/widgets, a win defender that can be disabled, no auto updates at all, a local account only, no taskbar shenanigans, properly configured explorer, some registry tweaks, runtimes pre-installed, extra drivers if needed, and QoL settings tweaked how I want them.

The OS installs itself in a few minutes with no intervention after the disk/partitioning stuff which I kept manual. It ends up being faster than the Ubuntu and CachyOs installs from the same drive. Then 2mins with massgrave post install if I haven't provided a key already.

When it is set up that way, Windows is decently fast and stable. And I have some control over it, at least whenever I need to enforce something.