Qt Creator system-wide installation cannot link to Qt on Linux

If Qt Creator is installed in a directory where the current user does not have write access, linking to existing Qt fails silently. The tooltip on Link with Qt shows a warning as shown in the attached image.

Steps

• Login as a regular user (not root) with sudo access.
• Install Qt with the online installer. Select any kit. Install to /opt/Qt.
• Install Qt Creator using an offline installer. Install to /opt/<subdirectory>, for example /opt/qtcreator-9.0.2. The installer will prompt for the password during installation.
• Start Qt Creator installed in the step above and navigate to Preferences --> Qt Versions
• Link to Qt and restart

Result - Qt kits appear empty.

Possible workaround -

• Change the installation directory owner to the current user (including subdirectories)

Expected - settings should be writable irrespective of installation directory

Note: Confirmed with Qt Creator 6.0.2, 9.0.2, 10.0.2, but other versions may behave the same.