I don't get complaints about bloat and disk space is cheap but what I do hope is for some robust community distros that preserve the ability to have local accounts, if/when that stops being possible.

It's not about disk space, it's about what all that data is doing. Quite a lot of it is what we would traditionally call malware. Or shovelware if you want to be generous.

Given Microsoft's recent history, it would be reasonable to assume that most of that bloat is full of software that is actively aiming to harm you, scam you, or spy on you. More than disk space, it burns CPU cycles and bandwidth that you are paying for.

Whether disk space is cheap or expensive is beside the point. I still don't want to waste it. Water is cheap, but if I saw someone pouring water down the drain for no reason I would still think it's foolish and wasteful.

For my use case, I have an underpowered Linux computer and some proprietary hardware and software that only works on Windows. It works in a virtual machine with qemu, but could definitely run smoother.

I guess this would also be good for things like ci/CD pipelines, testing, etc

Windows "distros" can only be hacks, not projects, and they can't support security. Hell, it's highly likely many of them will "debloat" off most of Windows's security features by default.