Realistically we cannot walk into Costco, get a $500 laptop and expect it to be free of bloatware and ads. There has to be a compromise somewhere if you really need something at that price level. It doesn't take much effort to wipe it all out as you say, do a fresh install and disable the features of Windows that annoy you the most. The question is if 2-3 hours of your time are worth the cheaper tag price.

Systems sold by the Microsoft store are good for this. Even their non-surface stuff is OEM bloat free. We got an Asus ultralight there with nothing unwanted but the normal Win10 Candy Crush, Xbox stuff.