Those occupy so little space and are so easy to avoid. I’m a little surprised it’s that annoying. Like I get it on the psychological level, only wanting to have the stuff you want on your machine. But frankly, I forgot those things were even on my tower because I haven’t seen them in years.

I know this sounds like a critique of your stance, but I’m kind of just thinking out loud here. I get where you’re coming from, and obviously it just doesn’t bother me as much. But now I’m afraid it’s going to in a few weeks lol

Maybe it's like mobile operating systems where those apps are part of an immutable area and can at most be hidden. However, given how incredibly slow OS updates are on modern Macs, that would be surprising.