ConfigMgr functionality without SCCM

In short, Patch Manager can work with WSUS environments (no SCCM/ConfigMgr involved), but it can also work with SCCM.  Officially supported SCCM environments (as of version 2023.3.1 of Patch Manager) cover SCCM2012 through SCCM 2203.  It may work with later versions of SCCM but may not have been fully tested with those versions yet.

I'm not sure of the naming distinctions that you made there (but that's largely Microsoft's fault, I think)  
but what it likely really comes down to is:  When Patch Manager goes to Publish a 3rd party package, it publishes that to a Software Update Point (SUP).  Side note: I'm not super up on SCCM nomenclature so if the name of that (SUP) is changed it is the bit that houses the Windows Updates and lets you create deployment jobs to push those Windows updates out.

That's the bit that Patch Manager would want to "talk" to.

Please let me know if that helped or if i just danced around your actual question.  

I think you answered me indirectly, hahaha, to confirm, you're saying that the ConfigMgr interface within Patch Manager is just an interface that directly links to SCCM. So if no SCCM, I can use ConfigMgr for any sort of deployment. I was hoping the ConfigMgr within Patch Manager was a separate entity entirely than just a tunnel interface to SCCM. 

Is that right?

Sounds right.  It's just a method to facilitate publishing 3rd party updates into SCCM, so that you could then deploy them from SCCM like you do Windows updates.  There are a couple of other minor 'hooks' into SCCM that let you, for example, pull info from the SCCM Client and display it, or to schedule specific SCCM Client tasks, but that's mostly it.

If you were just looking for an alternative to SCCM when it comes to pushing/scheduling Windows updates and deploying/updating 3rd party software - Patch Manager can do that stuff without SCCM (it uses WSUS instead and adds functionality to that WSUS environment).

It's great that you've been using Patch Manager for such a long time. Regarding your question, ConfigMgr (Configuration Manager) and SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) are essentially the same thing. So, if you want to utilize ConfigMgr functionality for deploying updates or remote management, you would need SCCM since they are one and the same.If you're looking for resources or guidance on SCCM/ConfigMgr, you can check out learnmesccm.com for more information and tips. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions or need further assistance!