The broader problem with terminal control sequences didn't exist on Windows (until very recently at least), or before that DOS and OS/2. You had API calls to position the cursor, set color/background, etc. Or just write directly to a buffer of 80x25 characters+attribute bytes.
But Unix is what "serious" machines -a long time ago- used, so it has become the religion to insist that The Unix Way(TM) is superior in all things...