TL;DR:
The Windows File Explorer is now dependent on Microsoft Recall being installed on Windows 11 24H2 editions and likely later.
This means that if you wish to use newer versions of the Window file explorer, you have to install recall on your system. Recall is a deeply-rooted, non-negotiable feature on all modern versions of Windows.
Solution
If you wish to strip out recall from your system, you are no longer able to use the built-in graphical file explorer and must use a third-party tool, and if you're not allowed to do that on the machine, then you are forced to have recall running on the system as it doesn't appear on any graphical settings pages.
The other solution is to prepare for transitioning into a free operating system such as GNU/Linux with distributions such as Linux Mint which is designed specifically for that transition. You can also run an older version of Windows and refuse to update.
Errata
Turns out that this issue has been exaggerated and that there are ways to disable co-pilot on Windows machines (or at the very least, command Windows to do so). Also it's debatable whether this program does any harm on non "copilot" computers but you can be the judge of that.
Genuine question, what makes you say this about W10 but not W7? Windows 10 has plenty of annoying shit that wasn't in 7. For one thing, 7 never tried to nag me about signing into a microsoft account.
I finally got Win10 to stop with the "sign in to windows" BS. Don't remember how, though.
I managed to kill Edge two or three times but the OS always seemed to die 2-3 months later so I gave up on it. : p
Because I don't remember my experience with W7. Come to think of it, maybe that means it was even less annoying and we've been going downhill ever since.