The POSIX sh quoting rules seem much simpler.

It's quite the mess Microsoft has there.

"Everyone [...] the wrong way"

By Microsoft. What a bunch of douche.

Via https://www.asciitable.com :

DEC Desc

28 Separator

29 Group Separator

30 Record Separator

31 Unit Separator

Why not use some existing, non-printing characters to obviate all the weeping and gnashing of teeth?

I pity the fool who has to use the command line on Windows. This is one of the many reasons why.

Reading M$ C code is painful with all those horrible M$ specific adds.