I actually was thinking further on this. WSL is not a Linux kernel. In WSL1, it's a syscall translation layer. In WSL2, it's a highly integrated virtualization

I actually was thinking further on this. WSL is not a Linux kernel. In WSL1, it's a syscall translation layer. In WSL2, it's a highly integrated virtualization environment. You do have to install a Linux distro. So the kernel's not shipping, just an environment in which a kernel can be installed.