It's true that you can't turn disable software updates without a registry edit, but those updates are purely security patches and nothing else. Although I do believe on principle that users should always be able to control updates, there's really not a lot to complain about here. (And you can control the updates, with a registry edit.)

> there's still a Windows store in the latest version.

There is? Not in mine.

I just double checked, I'm running Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024, which appears to still be the latest.

I'm running the Win10 version (the latest for that). I will doublecheck, I'm sure I saw the windows store. Mainly running it because my skylake NUC is no longer supported by Win11. And it still works totally fine for programming microcontrollers.

And I do want updates, I just want to decide when to install them. Not that "install before next tuesday or we will do it for you" mafia bullshit.