This probably deserves the new top spot in the 'security theater' competition.

Cracked Windows, no security updates since 2018, iso distributed through some telegram channel. This is the software equivalent of trying to buy a homemade vaccine from craigslist because you're afraid that Bill Gates is going to microchip you.

If this is the most viable alternative, what does it say about the official version?

It isn't, so nothing.

What more viable option achieves the goals of this project?

There seem to be a lot of scripts like [1] which basically have the same result, strip all the bloat and "spyware"...?

[1] https://github.com/farag2/Sophia-Script-for-Windows