To answer your question, I would say "no...no difference in functionality or utility". It's simply NI's way of caving to the hiring authorities who are tired of seeing the same resumes with LabView experience, and who want to hire particular people who've 'gotten word'...yes, just like in college, some people 'get word' as to what's on the final exam and some don't - and don't think for a second that those high school/college 'games' aren't being played at the corporate level.
Hypothetical situation here: big project coming up and they need to hire 200 engineers. It'll cost 'X' dollars/year plus medical and retirement benefits to hire an 'American' like you, or it'll cost '0.75X' dollars to hire a Pak on a 1 or 2 year contract, no benefits, and a bag of rice and curry. How do you distinguish between the two and make it 'plausible' before getting sued or earning the scrutiny of your local elected official? Easy...a year before you ramp up, you tell the 'Indian Institute of Electronics' to offer courses in LabWindows, then you write up the job description requiring LabWindows.
Your lawyer or local elected official doesn't understand that you're an engineer, you were able to learn LabView and you're perfectly capable of learning LabWindows - all they see is you don't meet all the qualifications, and they will drop your argument like a hot potato.
This has been going on for at least the last 17 years - ever since the Great Recession put more pressure on employers to be more 'profitable' - and is the very reason I wish I'd gone Civil Engineering. I wouldn't have made as much money, but I also wouldn't have spent so much time unemployed and constantly looking for a job as I did; and it was a lot. My wife did Civil Engineering, got her PE in half a dozen states by now and hardly missed a day of work. You can argue that as a female, she had her career handed to her on a silver platter (and I often do - because as a female engineer capable of doing a job, she's still considered a rare commodity), but I still think I'd have done better as a Civil or Structural Engineer.
