Clearly to virtualize operating systems as long as your level of virtualization mainly in terms of security and resource consumption isolation & reservation is satisfactory is a much better and lighter option.
That pretty much sums up Intel's view.
To quote an Intel executive I was corresponding with:
"The purpose of the paper was to showcase how Communication Service Providers can move to a more nimble and future proof microservices based network architecture with cloud native functions, via container deployment methodologies versus virtual machines. The paper cites many benefits of moving to a microservices architecture beyond whether it is done in a VM environment or cloud native. We believe the 5G networks of the future will benefit greatly by implementing such an approach to deploying new services."
Cheers,
Etienne