Hey. From what I understand, Uniform Server renames apache.exe like to httpd_z.exe mainly to avoid conflicts with other Apache installations on the system. It helps keep things portable and allows multiple instances to run without stepping on each other, especially in development environments where people might have different stacks running at once.
The downside, as you mentioned, is that standard Apache commands like apache -k restart rely on the binary being named apache.exe. When it's renamed, those commands fail unless you manually reinstall the service under the expected name, like you did with apache2.2.
I agree it would be great if there was an option to keep the original executable name for users who need full compatibility with Apache's CLI and service tools.