"Until recently, Windows has emphasized "Unicode" -W variants over -A APIs. However, recent releases have used the ANSI code page and -A APIs as a means to introduce UTF-8 support to apps. If the ANSI code page is configured for UTF-8, -A APIs operate in UTF-8. This model has the benefit of supporting existing code built with -A APIs without any code changes."
See here, it might be that they recognized that choices made in the 90's were wrong: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/globali...
"Until recently, Windows has emphasized "Unicode" -W variants over -A APIs. However, recent releases have used the ANSI code page and -A APIs as a means to introduce UTF-8 support to apps. If the ANSI code page is configured for UTF-8, -A APIs operate in UTF-8. This model has the benefit of supporting existing code built with -A APIs without any code changes."
> I like this one. Maybe you are right after all.
Thanks :-)