More than a year later and apparently, I’ve received oodles of kudos for my reply rants, and Intuit hasn’t changed their awful marketing behavior. 

I now know you can use a very old ‘close window’ command, at least for Windows-based computers: ALT-F4. This closes the prompt. That’s all. 

The security recommendations from Intuit have nothing to do with security, and everything to do with selling online services. If you require online services, ok. If you don’t, once the software has been purchased, ALL marketing should stop upon request. $300 isn’t shareware! It is safer NOT to go online.