> side note: do we need to care about Windows 7 anymore in 
> 3.10 given that microsoft no longer supports it?

If the fix comes in time for Python 3.8, then it needs to support Windows 7. For Python 3.9+, the 32 KiB limit can be removed. 

The console documentation still includes the misleading disclaimer about "available heap". This refers to a relatively small block of shared memory (64 KiB IIRC) that's overlayed by a heap, not the default process heap. Shared memory is used by system LPC ports to efficiently pass large messages between a system server (e.g. csrss.exe, conhost.exe) and a client process. The console API used to use an LPC port, but in Windows 8.1+ it uses a driver instead, so none of the "available heap" warnings apply anymore. Microsoft should clarify the docs to stress that the warning is for Windows 7 and earlier.