Cracked Office works great if you deny 100% of all network connectivity via Little Snitch. Same for cracked Adobe CC. If you don't want to fly the black flag, buy a dongle for Davinci Resolve Studio and download LibreOffice; both also work fine with 100% of all network connectivity denied.
You can disable all of the built-in LS rules for macOS services and never make/use an Apple ID (so, no App Store, no iCloud, no FaceTime, no iMessage, no Apple Music, etc) and your mac will still work to launch local apps just like it did in 1999. This is how I use mine.
Note well that you must install LS on a fresh boot offline, before you connect the mac to the network, otherwise APNS will phone home from your IP with client certs that are linked to your hardware serial number.
I give friends cash to order the new/fast BTO macs to their addresses on their payment cards, then go pick them up from them; you can't usually get the max-spec apple stuff for cash at the store.
You can actually at some stores get almost maxed out models, they have specific 'ultimate' configurations. Use the inventorywatch app to figure out whatever a store has in stock.
Like the 16" M1 Max with 64GB & 4TB SSD is the 'ultimate' retail config for that model for example.
You can disable all of the built-in LS rules for macOS services and never make/use an Apple ID (so, no App Store, no iCloud, no FaceTime, no iMessage, no Apple Music, etc) and your mac will still work to launch local apps just like it did in 1999. This is how I use mine.
Note well that you must install LS on a fresh boot offline, before you connect the mac to the network, otherwise APNS will phone home from your IP with client certs that are linked to your hardware serial number.
I give friends cash to order the new/fast BTO macs to their addresses on their payment cards, then go pick them up from them; you can't usually get the max-spec apple stuff for cash at the store.