What would be an inherently constrained API, then? I've successfully managed to create circular dependencies in quite a few different styles, so I'd love to find one that saves me from myself ;)
Maybe inherently was the wrong word. Though you can imagine a logger API that was like this:
typedef enum {
CONSOLE_LOGGER,
DATABASE_LOGGER,
/* etc. */
} LoggerType;
void add_logger(LoggerType);
But this limits the expressive power that callbacks provide. Sorry I don't have any other API recommendations. The only way I can think of to stay expressive while safeguarding against unintended abuse is to include code analysis.
The point of the article is that callback-based APIs like this obscure the actual problems (like circular dependencies).
You're right that constrained designs prevents issues like these but callback-based APIs aren't inherently constrained. They allow anything to happen, which is why they conversely encourage errors like these (and are subject to pitfalls).