> I suspect what most people want from a "modern" DOS would be something like this: a very thin API layer that contains OpenGL (or Vulkan), audio, and networking capability. As well as drivers for common USB devices and something that can read/write FAT/exFAT. But once you add all of that you realize it's nowhere near as lightweight as old DOS was and your app now has a thousand more responsibilities that something like the Linux kernel is currently handling for you.

I think people may be looking for something like a unikernel framework. Something like Linux is a lot of overhead if all you want to do is run a single program on a machine (virtual or physical).