Excel to DataSet using OLEDB working differently between .NET Core and .NET Framework - excel

Question

I have a worker service that references a .NET Framework class library. The class library contains a method to convert Excel to a dataset.
While debugging on Visual Studio, everything works as expected, but after publishing I get the error message:
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
To debug, I built the below two console apps with exactly the same code—one in .NET Core, the other .NET Framework. I then run the projects on two computers.
Computer A: Microsoft Office Tools installed, but no AccessDatabaseEngine.exe
Computer B: No Microsoft Office Tools, AccessDatabaseEngine installed
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
using System.Text;
namespace ToDataSheetCore
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
DataSet dt2 = ExcelToDataSetCommon("C:\\pathToExcel\\excelFile - AUGUST 04 2021.xlsx");
StringBuilder sb2 = new StringBuilder();
foreach (DataTable table in dt2.Tables)
{
foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
{
sb2.Append(string.Join(" ", row.ItemArray));
sb2.AppendLine();
}
}
Console.WriteLine(sb2);
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static DataSet ExcelToDataSetCommon(string SourceFilename)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
try
{
string connStr = string.Format("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0};Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;\"", SourceFilename);
OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connStr);
conn.Open();
DataTable schemaDT = conn.GetSchema("Tables", new string[] { null, null, null, "TABLE" });
conn.Close();
string tableName = schemaDT.Rows[0]["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(string.Format("SELECT * FROM [{0}]", tableName), conn);
OleDbDataAdapter adapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(cmd);
adapter.Fill(ds);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.Error.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
return ds;
}
}
}
Result
Computer A
.NET Core
Debug mode
Prints excel content to console
Publish mode - self-contained(win64, anypc)
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
.NET Framework
Debug mode
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
Publish mode - self-contained
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
Computer B
.NET Core
Debug mode
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
Publish mode - self-contained(win64, anypc)
The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
.NET Framework
Debug mode
Prints excel content to console (Fails on uninstalling AccessDatabaseEngine)
Publish mode - self-contained
Prints excel content to console (Fails on uninstalling AccessDatabaseEngine)
I understand installing AccessDatabaseEngine provider has an effect, but I don't understand the different results from .NET Framework and .NET Core.
Though I have resorted to using ExcelDataReader since I want to avoid external dependencies.
I am confused by the difference in the results using OleDB API between .NET Core and .NET Framework. Is there a way the AccessDatabaseEngine provider can be published together with a .NET project?