Hello Windbreak,
Thank you for your post! On Strava, we use the term virtual ride to mean something very specific - an indoor trainer ride that records and uploads virtual GPS data. An example of a product that does this is Zwift.
Because these files contain real GPS and time data, they will match segments on Strava. We require our Athletes to categorize these rides as "virtual ride" as this removes them from real-world segment leaderboards and puts the efforts on virtual ride segments. This is necessary because indoor trainer rides are not the same as riding outdoors with traffic, road conditions, weather, etc. and because of this, we can't allow times from these activities on public, real world segment leaderboards.
We do monitor activity uploads, and automatically apply the activity type "virtual ride" (or "virtual run") to any where we detect virtual GPS is present.
In the case of the activities completed using Wahoo SYSTM, no virtual GPS is recorded or uploaded, so they can simply be categorized as "indoor" rides on Strava, and the activity type can remain as "ride".