When I say "the runtime", I'm referring to everything that would be bundled into a published .NET program. The base class libraries, the bootstrapper, etc. There is no telemetry here.
Yes, if you download a .NET Runtime distribution, it will include the `dotnet` command from the SDK so that basic commands like `dotnet --list-runtimes` and `dotnet --list-sdks` are available. These commands may send telemetry. But as you probably saw on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/telemetry , using `dotnet path/to/program.dll` to run an unbundled .NET program will never send telemetry.
Yes, if you download a .NET Runtime distribution, it will include the `dotnet` command from the SDK so that basic commands like `dotnet --list-runtimes` and `dotnet --list-sdks` are available. These commands may send telemetry. But as you probably saw on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/telemetry , using `dotnet path/to/program.dll` to run an unbundled .NET program will never send telemetry.