MicrosoftGreg_E999 I agree SCCM more precisely Config Manager is a big solution for your scenario, if you have Microsoft E5 licenses it is included though incl the needed SQL license. What you could do is to combine WDS to deploy vanilla images ,then using AD Security groups and GPOs to assign who gets which stuff
This could be tools like WinPKG or winget, even software distribution policies via GPOs are suitable and all of them are free, or things like PatchmyPC.
"time is not on my side"
there is some work needed but you do this one time and won't have to care much about new OS releases anymore it will save you a lot of time. reinstalling will be a breeze.
"And so much junk to unclutter with Pro or even Enterprise that LTSC doesn't include"
As for the junk it easy to get the best out of pro using WIMwitch to update, customize and cleanup your images.
