It’s been a while since I last downloaded anaconda. But I remember when clicking on the download page, it would show the usual “choose your OS > download binary” (eg this archived version in 2019).
Recently I helped someone else set it up and it showed a form to put on email, with smaller gray text near the bottom of the form about skipping it.
Does this count as a dark pattern?
Yes and also not sure why you'd use Anaconda. What's wrong with plain regular Python?
Conda package manager is like pip on steroids. It's great for science, especially when working on Linux servers where you don't have root
What's the benefit over pip in a venv?
Pip in a venv doesn't get you non python tools.
Conda also has venvs, for seperate environments for stuff as well.