and then access them from the host via virtual smb shares
To view all of your available Linux distributions and their root file systems in Windows File explorer, in the address bar enter: \\wsl$
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/filesystemsPersonally, if something is called secure shell and it's not secure, then it's broken. Maybe I'm weird.
Some people prefer secure software to be regularly updated and audited and won't trust other programs. I think it's a perfectly reasonable position, but I also know not everyone will think the same way.
Ah, I see now there's a note in the README[0]. It sounds more like it's in maintenance mode / understaffed than completely abandoned, but I suppose it's worth being aware of. sshfs has been a killer feature for me on my machines for years for things like playing back stuff from my media library in mpv while it's stored on another machine. I found it to be easier to use and less glitchy than NFS. So I will likely continue to use it.
[0] https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs?tab=readme-ov-file#developm...