Your conflating apples and pineapples.
"Axle length" depends on context. When shopping axles, it's the overall length. However, when shopping wheels, it's the OLD, or over locknut dimension or dropout width.
The difference is typically 10-11mm for QR, or about 30-40mm for nutted axles.
Last edited by FBinNY; 07-10-24 at 06:51 PM.