Dragging up an old thread here, but I thought I'd post an update for anyone who might have this question in the future.
TLDR — I bought a 2021 Paperwhite, and it's great. I'm very happy with it. It can live permanently offline quite happily and it does everything I want, with only a few minor shortcomings. Managing the device with Calibre is exactly the same as it was with my 2014 Kindle.
I haven't connected it to the internet at all. I put it straight into aeroplane mode the first time I turned it on, and that's where it's staying. It did funnel me into the registration process initially, and at first I thought I might be stuck there, but all you have to do is click OK a few times, and if you're not connected to the internet, it just tells you to come back and finish the registration the next time you're online. It hasn't nagged me at all since then. Note that I didn't pre-register it when I placed the order. I don't know whether it would have changed anything had I done that.
I don't like the interface quite as much as my old Kindle, but it's a minor complaint. Amazon seem to have decided to really emphasise the shop, and as such there's a lot of wasted space on the screen. It's only a couple of additional taps to get to my books, so hardly an imposition, but it would be nice to be able to bypass that altogether.
My main criticism — something others noted above — is that there's no way to make collections, either via Calibre or on the device itself. Again this isn't that much of an issue for me, but I did like to have my fiction and non-fiction separated on my old Kindle, and now I have everything in one giant list. Perhaps Calibre will add the ability to do this in a future update, but even if not, I'm pleased with my purchase. Being able to read in less than perfect light, or even in complete darkness, is fantastic.
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