Antivirus software for Linux also has kernel access. You can’t intercept OS operations like opening files or launching executables without kernel access. And some of the companies I worked at also required antivirus software on Linux servers.

You can absolutely run Windows without an anti-virus, it has plenty of security features built-in.

It’s all a matter of trust. Do you trust your engineers to properly configure machines to be secure and not run exes from dubious sources, or do you trust a cybersecurity company to do it for you? Anti-virus software nowadays is more about restricting users from doing stupid shit.