Not sure how widespread that view is, but that's never the association I would have made.
"Xless" is just a different way of saying "without X". "fearless" = "without fear"; "serverless" = "without a server" (yes, I know, not really); so "distroless" = "(comes) without a distribution"
So in my opinon the name correctly suggests that it's "just the package" and comes "without a distro", and not "was built without the help of a distribution".
"Xless" is just a different way of saying "without X". "fearless" = "without fear"; "serverless" = "without a server" (yes, I know, not really); so "distroless" = "(comes) without a distribution"
So in my opinon the name correctly suggests that it's "just the package" and comes "without a distro", and not "was built without the help of a distribution".