Only a few WinAPI functions can take UNC path, Explorer and cmd.exe don't support them either. The same problem has with the dotNet framework which is implement

Only a few WinAPI functions can take UNC path, Explorer and cmd.exe don't support them either. The same problem has with the dotNet framework which is implemented on top of WinAPI. Nodejs is a console application and can call system applications via command line/cmd.exe. WinNT kernel and NTFS/ReFS have no such path limitations, that limitation comes from Win16 API and to make the job easier the Win32API and its subsystem (32-bit and 64-bit Windows since Win3.11 with Win32s addon and Win95) comes with such legacy restrictions.