If GTK had the same status in Linux distributions as the Win16/Win32/etc API does in Windows then Linux distributions would carry every API-incompatible version

If GTK had the same status in Linux distributions as the Win16/Win32/etc API does in Windows then Linux distributions would carry every API-incompatible version of the library necessary (and maintain old ones). As it stands, GTK more closely resembles the "Microsoft C++ Redistributable" situation in Windows -- an awkward hybrid of library and API.