Using subscription-manager is a PITA so you might as well run a Rhel clone so you don't have to deal with it, Rocky Linux's organization has been setup differently as well so that they don't get a repeating CentOS project situation and that is why it took so long for them to release a first version. When they announced the future of CentOS I converted my system to Springdale Linux 8, after Rocky Linux 8 was released I used their convert script to convert al my running systems with Springdale Linux 8 to Rocky Linux because of more people being involved and updates being release faster. Springdale Linux also ran just as well as any other Rhel clone I have run on my systems.But there is also the possibility of using RHEL. You can sign up for a developer subscription which costs nothing, and it gives you 16 entitlements IIRC that you can use in production environments too.
Using subscription-manager is a PITA so you might as well run a Rhel clone so you don't have to deal with it, Rocky Linux's organization has been setup differently as well so that they don't get a repeating CentOS project situation and that is why it took so long for them to release a first version. When they announced the future of CentOS I converted my system to Springdale Linux 8, after Rocky Linux 8 was released I used their convert script to convert al my running systems with Springdale Linux 8 to Rocky Linux because of more people being involved and updates being release faster. Springdale Linux also ran just as well as any other Rhel clone I have run on my systems.
Roger that, I can't say that I've had many issues with subscription-manager though