I don't want the bloat

If you have the Creative Cloud subscription, you want to be sure to keep both the Creative Cloud application and your Acrobat Pro installation. It’s pretty expensive compared to a stand-alone Acrobat subscription, but if you feel that’s what you need to do, you can uninstall the rest without significant issue.

But if you aren’t stuck with a long-term contract and paying monthly, I’d just get rid of the Creative Cloud subscription, use the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool to remove any and all remnants of your Creative Cloud subscription and then start a new Acrobat Pro or Studio subscription, as you see fit. If you prefer, you can also buy a three-year license for Acrobat Pro as well. If you can qualify for an educational discount, the price for the three-year license is very competitive.

Hope this helps,

Randy

​@fichdich as per ​@Dave Creamer of IDEAS it truly worth checking how it was licensed and installed first, as some Acrobat subscriptions still use Creative Cloud for sign-in and updates. You can try uninstalling Creative Cloud. The worst-case, if Acrobat stops working as expected, you can simply reinstall Creative Cloud and sign back in! 

Is your Acrobat subscription part of the Creative Cloud or a stand-alone subscription?