Which does 'compile exe' use? Essentially here is what I see -

  $ cat a.dart
  void main() {
  print("hello world");
  }

  $ dart compile exe a.dart
  Info: Compiling with sound null safety
  Generated: /home/x/a.exe
  ~ $ strip a.exe
  ~ $ ./a.exe --version
  Dart SDK version: 2.12.0 (stable) (Thu Feb 25 19:50:53 
  2021 +0100) on "linux_x64"

If I run without --version, it prints the same thing the 'dart' command does.