Hiding files starting with a dot is just a cosmetic, view level implementation. This article shows that Windows had coupled this behavior directly to system level file flags.
Is it? [0]
[0]: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RobPikeTheHuman/posts/R58WgWwN9...
Sort of. The kernel doesn't treat it special but the OS does.
Any POSIX compliant shell won't include dot files for a single wildcard.
E.g. rm -fr * doesn't empty the current directory.