I didn't mean that I should be able to build/run/etc things in the repo that rely on the special filename and magically expect it to work. But my this behavior would make me unable to even look at the repo and perform normal git operations, regardless what it actually contains:

If you interpret "refuse to write the file" as a fatal error, I wouldn't even be able to clone the repo because the clone process would fail.

If you interpret it as non-fatal, I could browse the repo, but would always have a non-clean working set with a "deletion" I cannot undo. This means I cannot pull, rebase or checkout anything. (Unless I actually commit the deletion and remind myself not to push it. On every single branch.)

In no scenario can I access the contents of the file, even if I don't care about the filename at all. Even if I would like to fix the filename issue, I couldn't do so from a Windows pc.

That's why I think a solutions using escaping (and highly visible warnings in git status) are better. Yes, your scripts will still break but you have at least a chance to fix the mess.