I agree with your statement, but I understand why you'd want to probe. It's cross-platform, and it's more reliable... (unless you run into a driver bug).
The function you linked to queries the registry, and that on its own can be invalid information. How does that info get there?
Hardware codecs are complicated. See V4L2 Linux kernel API, it exposes hardware codecs without doing anything on top.
GPU vendors have higher chances of correctly using their hardware, compared to Discord developers.
> How does that info get there?
GPU driver package installs not just user/kernel mode halves of the driver, it also installs and registers these media foundation transforms.
They are DLLs which wrap hardware codecs into higher-level API.
> reminds me of this article
The article is about Win95. It's now harder to ship broken Windows drivers.
Windows checks for Microsoft's digital signature, and users expect drivers to be available on Windows update.
The function you linked to queries the registry, and that on its own can be invalid information. How does that info get there?
It ultimately reminds me of this article:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040211-00/?p=40...