Without going into the rest of your points, which seem bizarrely furious at a piece of software, nothing about Homebrew forces you to live inside `/usr/local`.
It is recommended, but if you want to run in `/opt/brew` or `~/brew` you'll get a warning some things may not work but that's it. There's no hard block, and the vast majority of core formulae can pour their bottles anywhere.
It is recommended, but if you want to run in `/opt/brew` or `~/brew` you'll get a warning some things may not work but that's it. There's no hard block, and the vast majority of core formulae can pour their bottles anywhere.