https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47643
--- Comment #2 from Scott shagooserver@gmail.com --- I think this is splitting hairs unnecessarily and I believe your assertion is incorrect, if I understand the situation correctly the PATH container is a (sub) key which contains a string value "whatever it is". A bit like folders and files.
Anyway, to the crux of your question. I am using wine to run a Windows non GUI program, in this particular case the program is eac3to. I have a basic launcher script that opens a CLI window in the Wine prefix with a Z: prompt. The path directs Wine to look in the folder where the exe file is located, which is what paths do except in this case it is not.
I hope this is sufficient though I would be happy to provide any further information you might require.