The reason to turn it on before creating emuMMC is so that emuMMC already has it on when you boot to it for the first time & doesn't connect to your wifi. As stated, you can turn it off in stock sysMMC and use the online features.
turn on airplane mode before your emummc creat, then use DNS.mitm + 90DNS block at the beginning, you should be safe and clean.
NVM if you are those sysmmc cfw person
I have an unmodded XAW1005 Switch on 16.1.0. I don't have a Switch Online subscription anymore, so I can't enter the settings page to disable automatic save game uploads. I can't access the eShop to buy a subscription because my console is not...