This has been possible for a long time. For the install media, Apple hosts them and will give you the dmg file for free.
The only concern is the terms of the EULA so that's why the earlier poster says "for casual development"
There are a lot of guides online, including "one command" shell/powershell scripts that will automatically pull down the right files for you, and use the vmware/virtualbox api to create the vm automatically, and patch the bootloader to get Catalina or Big Sur loading, etc - if past experience is any indication, people probably already have Monterey beta loading fine already.
again, it's not a matter of "how" it's whether you (or Apple lawyers) care about the EULA.
in addition to what @barkingcat said, for vmware to be able to boot a macos virtual machine you'll need it to unlock it for that OS. Search for vmware unlocker is a free utility that depends on your vmware version, run it once and you're done.
The only concern is the terms of the EULA so that's why the earlier poster says "for casual development"
There are a lot of guides online, including "one command" shell/powershell scripts that will automatically pull down the right files for you, and use the vmware/virtualbox api to create the vm automatically, and patch the bootloader to get Catalina or Big Sur loading, etc - if past experience is any indication, people probably already have Monterey beta loading fine already.
again, it's not a matter of "how" it's whether you (or Apple lawyers) care about the EULA.