[EgoIncarnate]

Vs WSL1:

GPU access. Actual graphics use is so so, but essential for doing CUDA/AI stuff

Faster file system access on the Linux side (for Linux compiles etc). Ironically, accessing Windows filesystem is slower than WSL1.

Better Linux compatibility.

Vs a Linux VM:

GPU access!

Easier testing for localhost stuff, Linux ports get autoforwarded to Windows (if your test http server is running in WSL2 at port 8080, you can browse to http://localhost:8080 in your Windows browser)

Easy Windows filesystem interaction. Windows local drives show up in /mnt automatically.

Mix Windows commands with Linux commands. I use this for example to pipe strings.exe, which is UTF-16 aware, with Linux text utils.

I think WSL2 tends to be better at sharing memory (releasing unused memory) with the rest of the system than a dedicated VM.

You can mimic some of this stuff to a degree with a VM, but the built in convenience facetor can't be overlooked, and if you are doing CUDA stuff there isn't a good alternative that I am aware of. You could do PCI passthrough using datacenter class GPUs and Windows Server, but $$$.