No, you don’t need an account if you get Ondsel from their git https://github.com/Ondsel-Development/FreeCAD/releases
But, there is a free account that even gives you a bit of cloud storage if you want it. Or you don’t even need to sign into it if you don’t want. They do want to sell cloud storage for commercial use - Daddy’s got to make a living you know. But, the software is still open source and free to keep and use as you see fit.
As a retired cold and mean hearted Toolmaker and ME, there is a need for Art Majors in this world. Just not as many of them as we produce perhaps. Kind of like Astrophysicists, we do need them, but truthfully there are only a handful of jobs available for those degrees. So the majority often need to figure out what they can do besides their degree training.
If you want to be an Art Major, you will most likely need to figure on finding a job that can tangentially make use of your artistic training. Because you probably won’t become a famous painter or professor teaching art in a collage or work in an art museum.
But you can become an art teacher in a high school or perhaps work in web design or some kind of advertising. Not what the average art major might wish to be, but rather careers that can use those skills.