Suppose /x/y is a link to /z, then /x/y/. is /z/. is /z
I use this in 'find' in place of '-follow' if only the first dir is a link and I don't want 'find' wandering down other links.
Notation /x/y/ is another way, less intrusive, to tell an app to look for a directory there. Sometimes you end up with /x/y/./.... or /x/y//.... for your trouble!
It may be they used lstat() where they should have used stat(), or something so trivial, or else the libs under them are flawed for the odd linking of a windows system. In UNIX a real hard link cannot be a directory, so it if is a file, then overwriting is appropriate, but I guess in WinDos they are a lot less hard.