So? what's the problem? do you need/want a password?
That's how I do clean installs, I don't need a password, at least not at first.
Then when I need to add an MS account, be it Mail or the WIP, I chose for 'apps only'
Yes, I want the password for the offline account, always done it that way it is different than the one used for the MS account.
The behavior changed because they just did not even ask as they always did before. 🤣
It is the same as always.
If you type a password you get the questions (something I've never done), if you click next with the box empty, it means you don't want a password and setup continues without asking.
Yes, I just repeated with the same installation media and this time it worked normally.
No idea why yesterday it skipped asking for the password and then it was stuck for minutes, I saw it working on the disk and nothing happened for several minutes.
When I did it just now it worked normally and no delays just the normal behavior.