Here is the original statement about special treatment:
"It was originally created by Microsoft and as Herb mentions "all our target platforms", so most likely it gets special treatment."
My claim is that Microsoft is not giving any special treatment to the GSL... the GSL is written using functionality that is officially available to any third party library, and hence not special.
Are you disputing this? If so then what is the special treatment you're claiming that Microsoft is giving to GSL or what special treatment is GSL making use of?
I am not claiming there is any special treatment at all. I think the situation is much simpler:
They (Microsoft) test GSL with specific compiler versions to observe how their usage of the UB is treated, and if satisfactory, that compiler version is now "supported" in their eyes. They do not claim to "support" any other version because they have not tested them to know how the UB functions there.