How serious is MS about requiring TPM? I haven't read too much into it but every time I hear people talking about it they say there will be workarounds or MS will eventually budge. The same with requiring online accounts.

this stuff has always been configurable from the policy editor and I can't imagine that ever going away, but I can imagine them removing the policy editor from the free editions - but then someone would just make a free policy editor (if there isn't one already)