I was expecting this reaction, of course, but that's why I specifically wrote "Windows API emulation layer", which it definitely is.

The recursive acronym name was chosen first and foremost because it's funny, but also to make the point that it's not emulating all of Windows, and definitely isn't something like dosbox or Dolphin in terms of implementation strategy. This is true, but we shouldn't allow it to break our language, no matter how much we love the clever meme!

At that point I would just call it a reimplementation instead of emulation.

Proton includes DXVK, and that is a high-level emulator for DirectX by most definitions. Wine isn't an emulator because it doesn't have to be.