adb devices hangs and after a while times out on WSL2

Question

Running on Ubuntu 20.04 (WSL2):

➜  ~ adb --version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 33.0.1-8253317
Installed as /home/eliya/dev/Android/platform-tools/adb

Running

➜  ~ adb devices
adb W 04-28 16:43:11 20145 20145 network.cpp:149] failed to connect to '172.23.160.1:5037': Connection timed out
* cannot start server on remote host
adb: failed to check server version: cannot connect to daemon at tcp:172.23.160.1:5037: failed to connect to '172.23.160.1:5037': Connection timed out

Running

➜  ~ adb start-server
adb W 04-28 16:47:17 21475 21475 network.cpp:149] failed to connect to '172.23.160.1:5037': Connection timed out
* cannot start server on remote host
error: cannot connect to daemon at tcp:172.23.160.1:5037: failed to connect to '172.23.160.1:5037': Connection timed out

But when I run it as root, it seems to work fine:

➜  ~ sudo adb devices
List of devices attached
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX  device

How can I make adb to work without sudo permissions?

Update 1

running adb -H localhost ... seems to be ok. What am I missing here?

Update 2

Running in Windows:

PS C:\Users\coeli> adb start-server

and then in WSL2 (hangs for a while and then fails):

➜  ~ adb devices
List of devices attached
* cannot start server on remote host
error: cannot connect to daemon at tcp:172.23.160.1:5037: Connection timed out