If you care, just install the `coreutils` package and it'll overwrite the default symlinks and you'll get GNU coreutils by default.

I hate how many incredibly useful and sane options and most of the time missing from busybox binutils... drivers me crazy.

Are there any (lightweight?) desktop distros built atop Alpine as a base?

I use it as a daily driver. Here is my setup. Coreutils is included.

https://lamda-chops.bearblog.dev/alpine-linux/