> How does this relate to issue 14201?  That is, is the answer just 
> "use getitem if you don't want caching"? 

Unlike CDLL.__getitem__, LibraryLoader.__getitem__ does use the attribute cache. Why use a LibraryLoader if you don't want the cached libs and access to their cached function pointers? That's its main reason for existing.  But really only in Windows, since most DLL names work as a attributes and Windows LoadLibrary appends .DLL. If you don't want cached libs, don't use a LibraryLoader. Just use CDLL('msvcr100'), WinDLL('kernel32'), etc. If you want cached libs without polluting ctypes.cdll or ctypes.windll, just create your own instance such as windll = ctypes.LibraryLoader(ctypes.WinDLL).