I haven't used all variants of VMs but my experience with VMs is very different from WSL2. For example:

* Smooth set up. Don't have to install some large commercial 800MB MSI like VMware workstation, download some Linux image, go through partitioning of file system etc.

* Well integrated. I can open up a terminal and it acts as any other window in my system (meaning I don't get the window in a window effect as you get with a new VM).

* My file system is mapped automatically. No need to set up Shared Folders or whatever manually.

* Better startup perf. WSL starts in a second on my computer. Never had the same experience with full VMs. Even if I use something like alpine just starting VMware or VirtualBox takes a lot longer than starting WSL.

Saying it is like any other VM seems just incorrect. Saying it didn't work out seems even more misguided.