semicolon effects

[Dan Jacobson]

(info "(make) Rule Syntax") says
      The first recipe line may appear on the line after the
      prerequisites, with a tab character, or may appear on the same line,
      with a semicolon.  Either way, the effect is the same.

However,

$ cat Makefile
B:; :;  Z
C:
        :
        Z
$ make B
:;      Z
/bin/sh: line 1: Z: command not found
make: *** [Makefile:2: B] Error 127
$ make C
:
Z
make: Z: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:5: C] Error 127

So we see that "the effect is the same" is inaccurate.

And even if we do
$ touch Z
the results don't change.

Sure, $PWD is not on our $PATH, but still, make is using the simple
$ cat x
cat: x: No such file or directory
type response, When it should instead say like
$ x
bash: x: command not found

GNU Make 4.3