Applied more suggestions and added test

docs/user_guide.rst

@@ -118,7 +118,8 @@ at the moment has two types of virtual environments:
 Seeders
 -------
 These will install for you some seed packages (one or more of: :pypi:`pip`, :pypi:`setuptools`, :pypi:`wheel`) that
-enables you to install additional python packages into the created virtual environment (by invoking pip). Installing :pypi:`setuptools` and :pypi:`wheel` is disabled by default on Python 3.12+ environments. There are two
+enables you to install additional python packages into the created virtual environment (by invoking pip). Installing
+:pypi:`setuptools` and :pypi:`wheel` is disabled by default on Python 3.12+ environments. There are two
 main seed mechanisms available:
 
 - ``pip`` - this method uses the bundled pip with virtualenv to install the seed packages (note, a new child process

src/virtualenv/seed/embed/base_embed.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from ..seeder import Seeder
 from ..wheels import Version
 
-PERIODIC_UPDATE_ON_BY_DEFAULT, OPTIONAL_DISTS = True, {"wheel", "setuptools"}
+PERIODIC_UPDATE_ON_BY_DEFAULT = True
 
 
 class BaseEmbed(Seeder, metaclass=ABCMeta):
@@ -85,7 +85,8 @@ def add_parser_arguments(cls, parser, interpreter, app_data):  # noqa: U100
                 action="store_true",
                 help=f"do not install {distribution}",
                 default=True
-                if (float(interpreter.version_str.rsplit(".", 1)[0]) >= 12) and (distribution in OPTIONAL_DISTS)
+                if (float(interpreter.version.split(" ")[0].rsplit(".", 1)[0]) >= 12)
+                and (distribution in {"wheel", "setuptools"})
                 else False,
             )
         parser.add_argument(

tests/unit/seed/embed/test_base_embed.py

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import sys
+
 import pytest
 
 from virtualenv.run import session_via_cli
@@ -12,3 +14,19 @@
 def test_download_cli_flag(args, download, tmp_path):
     session = session_via_cli(args + [str(tmp_path)])
     assert session.seeder.download is download
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("args", "install"),
+    [([], True)],
+)
+def test_embed_optional_wheels(args, install, tmp_path):
+    session = session_via_cli(args + [str(tmp_path)])
+    if float(sys.version.split(" ")[0].rsplit(".", 1)[0]) >= 12:
+        assert session.seeder.no_setuptools is install
+        assert session.seeder.no_wheel is install
+        assert session.seeder.no_pip is not install
+    else:
+        assert session.seeder.no_setuptools is not install
+        assert session.seeder.no_wheel is not install
+        assert session.seeder.no_pip is not install

whitelist.txt

@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ deque
 devnull
 distlib
 distro
-dists
 dll
 docname
 doctree