The popular homebrew system installs its binaries into /usr/local/bin.

The macOS python install also defaults to /usr/local/bin where it
puts symlinks to Python like:

% ls -l /usr/local/bin/python3.10
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  73  8 Feb 19:45:50 2021 /usr/local/bin/python3.10@ -> ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/bin/python3.10

I understand that there are issues when homebrew installed code requires home brew's python but finds the python.org version.

Having installation options to control both where the symlinks are installed or not having any symlinks installed would help.

This would make it easier to work with both python.org and homebrew.

From researching it seems that homebrew cannot be configure to use another folder for its installation.

Similar to Issue43167, there already is a mechanism to do that: on the "Installation Type" window of the macOS installer app sequeence, select "Customize" and then deselect the "UNIX command-line tools" package. Another option is to use the macOS "installer" command line tool instead and supply it with a choice changes file that deselects the package.

Noted in passing: apparently Homebrew has moved to using /opt/homebrew as its root for installs on Apple Silicon Macs rather than /usr/local.  And it is possible to use other prefixes as long as you are willing to let homebrew build the packages from source (admittedly not as convenient).

From "UNIX command-line tools" its not clear to me that that prevents
symlinks in /usr/local/bin. Maybe word it as "Add python to /usr/local/bin".

Is this documented anywhere?

I just looked at the download page https://www.python.org/downloads/macOS and did not seen any linked pages that might explain the options.

On the Installation Type -> Customize window in the installer, there is an explanation of a package when you can click on it. For Unix command-line tools package, the explanation (at the bottom of the window) is:

"This package installs the unix tools in /usr/local/bin for compatibility with older releases of Python. This package is not necessary to use Python."

This also appears in the output from the installer command-line tool.

I was wondering what the bottom text box was for.

The usual UX for check boxes is to toggle when the text of the control is clicked.

Because of that I avoid clicking on check boxes that I do not know if I want to change. Hence I did not get to see the description of the options.

The PKG installer is odd in not having that behaviour.

To check I remember this correctly I use Apple Mail Preferences
and click the text on a check box item.

> I was wondering what the bottom text box was for. [...]

I suggest you take that UX issue up with Apple as we have no control over the macOS Installer app and it has worked that way for a long, long time :)

If the proposed solution in Issue43167 of adding some text to the installer Welcome or ReadMe windows is sufficient, we can close this as a duplicate thereof.