I started down that path. But when you install Windows 10 Pro and your login screen is covered in advertisements and news updates, it leaves a pretty shitty taste in your mouth.

Agreed, shitty, but those aren't hard to disable, and it's one of the first things I do on new installs.

(I only run windows to do cross-platform testing)

For most users that get that nasty aftertaste, it's not as much that you can't remove or disable those ads/unexpected feeds, but that the manufacturer or core team that built it had the mentality to put it there in the first place.

I do not have ads at all and did not have to disable them. This maybe because when I install windows I do it using local account. Not the online account with MS. And of course I answer NOOOOOOO to every question they ask during install.

A year ago I did some contract work building docker based software. Had to run many dockers. What I did is I installed VMWare on my Windows laptop and then created Linux VM with 16GB RAM and 4 Cores. Then all docker based development was done on that VM so I did not have to launch separate VM for each container. All fast and snappy.

What are you currently missing with the current WSL?

filesystem performance is absolutely horrible, which affects lots of workflows.

If you create the files on the linux side as compared to shared windows folder, the performance seems to be good for me. Before vscode wsl plugin, the only way to work was to open files from windows and use the linux cli but the plugin made it so that you can stream files from the linux, which removed the need for using any shared drive for me. Perf bonus of switching to linux only workflow was significant, you should give it a try.

That is only for cross OS FS work, the Linux FS speed is as good as native.

Yes, the /mnt/c situation is bad.