[barrkel]

Windows CLI apps aren't "fake GUI". There's a flag in the executable header that tells the loader (and from there the rest of the OS) whether to ensure a console is allocated for it and wire up stdin/out/err if they're not already wired up, but that's it.

An executable won't have its own window unless it calls CreateWindowEx one way or another, and any such window won't be very functional until the app starts pumping messages, which is work it needs to actively do, with GetMessage and DispatchMessage. Obviously a CLI-only app won't do these things, but it doesn't need to go out of its way to not do them; it doesn't need to fake anything, or hide or otherwise resort to subterfuge to conceal GUI elements.

There's a stronger argument to be made in some COM scenarios; e.g. single threaded apartment threading model creates a hidden window so it can use the message pump as a communication and serialization mechanism. But even here it's mostly just repurposing existing Windows stuff in ways which work well with existing GUI apps.