OP here, there is a doc from Microsoft that talks about the changes from WSL1->WSL2, and WSL2 IS a VM. The reason it's "better" than VirtualBox or VMWare is that it's "optimized" for Windows. Which seems like a vague way of saying it uses their proprietary Hyper-V VM. I think what you're saying is true though. If you want to have fine-tuned controls, I feel like VirtualBox is nicer. I don't actually know whether or not you can go into the Hyper-V settings and manipulate memory or vCPU at all... maybe worth investigating.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/compare-version...