Thanks for the explanations and further questions.
First, I can only talk from my own perspective - I have no idea of the internals of VMware company or software. I just have been using it extensively, together with my world-wide colleagues, for 15+ years in an extensive manner.
What I meant was a distro-specific install. With Debian-family, you install Open VMware Tools just like anything else on *buntu ... sudo apt install ... and so forth. I cannot comment on other distros. More: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/11.3.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vmwaretools.doc/GUID-C48E1F14-240D...
As for mouse problems - there is perhaps an interesting discussion about mouse-things on Workstation Pro Forum, just from yesterday. It was about scrolling not working on a Windows 10 Host with Win 11 Guest. On my Kubuntu, no problems. The solution was to enable smooth scrolling on Windows 10 ... please, read the explanation from an expert for better understanding what really happens with mice.
As for your specific mouse problems - It seems that Kali isn't supported as Host. More: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80807
I'm not sure what it tells about the Guest and I looked at Kali download site. It looks very confusing for me, from virtualization point of view. I have installed just earlier this year, 10+ Linux versions to test (*buntu, other Debian related, Fedora, Puppy Linux, Arch Linux-related). I have a couple of Win 11 VMs, installed with different ways. I have, over the years installed every Windows OS since Win NT 4.0 ten times over. But NEVER have installed any VMware-specific version of ANY of those OS's. This was something that I think you asked, why it isn't so. It is so, but apparently Kali Linux does have specific versions for VMware and VirtualBox and then a Bare Metal version. I thought Puppy Linux was special, but Kali seems to be special in its own way. If its VMware-version does not work, I would first ask from Kali why not. EVERY other OS version that mentioned above, does NOT have a specific version for VMware - that is the entire idea - run a computer transparent of virtualization. If a virtual computer wouldn't work transparently with its regular version, in professional use - like with computer aided design and data management - it would be useless. I'm no expert in this field, but it seems, based on the brief descriptions, that Kali is not even meant to work transparently as a virtual machine, but quite the opposite - hence the different versions to get it working at all. Kali must have some benefits from being build like it is - you can do wonderful and mystic things with Linux, and sometimes they do just that ... not every Linux distro works in every specific or even common way.
To get a distro working in VMware is far from difficult. I just did it yesterday for a new Mint version, which OS I am not using, and it was mostly about waiting the download. There was nothing wrong in the end ... without any VMware Tools install.
However, you are right that there are so many different configuration items nowadays. They used to be non-issues for running the computer, but unfortunately, some of the defaults must be changed with current versions. They take less than 1 minute, but the problem is to know them. I once wrote step by step instructions how to install Ubuntu VM and tested it successfully with a complete newbie. Still - in order to get the computer running fast, has still things that must be understood - otherwise the VM is far from optimum. If you have specific needs, like portability, backups, memory management ... I think there is no short-cut - Operating System related things, including the hardware, must be understood, since after all, we are talking about Operating System on Virtual Hardware.
EDIT: Correction: Web Page terminology talks about a Kali VMware Image - it doesn't mean an OS image. It actually means a virtual computer. Does that mean that you cannot create it yourself and get it running?
