To only use Cloudflare for DNS, just add a record and make sure the orange cloud icon is off to disable proxying. However, your observation is mostly correct. C

To only use Cloudflare for DNS, just add a record and make sure the orange cloud icon is off to disable proxying. However, your observation is mostly correct. Cloudflare offers at cost domain registration as an extra benefit (or lock in) for their customers, rather than as a general service and as such, you can't change your nameservers away from them.