- HNS package is quite independent and it can be moved out of hcsshim to its own repo. - In k8s/k8s repo hcsshim is being imported only for using hns constructs (in 3 files only https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Akubernetes%2Fkubernetes%20%22hcsshim.%22&type=code) :  hcsshim tag used in k8s/k8s is more that 2-3 years old and is blocking certain updates from happening like https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126361#issuecomment-2264232155 - Also, HNS can stop depending on hcsshim release process if it is moved out to its own repo