Setting up a default profile

Hey all.  Windows 11 is becoming increasingly frustrating trying to set up profiles the way we traditionally do it in our company and I am hoping for a new method.  Our current method is we do a reimage using a PXE boot setup that installs everything and then we log in to our admin account to make sure we add some things that arent in the image like remote connection software and Lenovo updaters.  After that, we usually have to have a user log in, and then we set up their mail for Outlook 2019 (this is what we use instead of the Outlook that comes with Windows), then set up Teams and we use Chrome as a browser.  Next we set up default apps to use Adobe as the default PDF viewer, a different media player as the default media player, and Chrome.  Then we check all updates, use VAMT to license the Office products, and then hand it over.  What I would like to do is to be able to set up the main account on these computers and then have all of the subsequent logins/profile creations mimic this.  Some of the frustrations now stem from Microsoft pinning their Windows Outlook on the taskbar and not being able to fully get rid of it, and the other is the way they changed the default apps.  In Windows 10, I could just tell it the default email app, default photo viewer, default media player, etc.  Now I have to choose the app and then say what all file extensions will be set to the default app I choose to use.  

Our issue is that we can do initial setups with users, but once someone signs in at another computer, it creates a profile, none of these settings are there, and they try to use the Windows Outlook and it wont work for them so they put in a ticket.  I also would love to just be able to hand over computers to users without having to have them sit there and be with me to set up the profile.  I have started asking for passwords, but thats weird for some folks (which is understandable).  I offer setting a temporary password in AD so we can both access it while I set up their new computer and then I will just let them reset it in AD when im done, but all that seems ridiculous.  I feel like there has to be an easier way.  We tried using the XML file with the GPO for the default apps, but that didnt work so I am assuming we did something incorrect or maybe that method no longer works.  

Is there a way to make it where when new users log in and it sets up their profile, we will have Outlook (not Windows Outlook), Teams, and Chrome pinned to the taskbar while unpinning Windows Outlook, Microsoft Store, and Edge, and then having all of the default apps already preset?  Also is there a way to remove Windows Outlook so that none of the profiles can access that?  Those tickets are so aggravating because its something so simple and yet I havent been able to find a way to remove it completely so that it doesnt pop up on newly created profiles.