Note that Docker Desktop for Mac has always used a VM to run a Linux instance. Same with Docker Desktop on Windows (I don't know if this has changed with WSL). The main difference on M1 Macs is the qemu emulation when a Docker image is only available as x86_64. If the image is available in AArch64 it runs native on the M1.
WSL1 doesn't support cgroups and other pieces needed to run containers, but Docker Desktop can use WSL2, which uses a lightweight VM in the background, so you are correct.
I feel Windows Containers are a whole separate thing. I personally have never seen anyone use them, but then again I have never worked on a Windows Server stack.