I think it's related to the fact that emacs has multiple (very) small files and short-lived processes, which does not work well/fast on Windows. For a while, I ran Xubuntu in a VM just to use emacs, because the performance on my Surface book 2 was unacceptable.

I ended up going in the other direction: kept emacs, got mostly rid of windows (I have it in a VM for the odd occasion where I need to use a windows-specific program. The fact that my company is flexible on the work OS is a huge bonus for me.