The VM is not built for every release, it is copied into the release. The fact that it isn't built for each release is why cross-compilation of releases is not possible.
I must be an idiot because I still don't get it. If the VM is just copied into the release, not built, why can't you do that on macOS for deployment on Linux by copying a Linux version in? Why do you need to do it in a VM or Linux build server?