Instant build fail when configured with -silent

Trying to build Qt with GCC 7.1 fails in seconds. Configured with:

configure -prefix E:\Qt\Qt591test -c++std c++11 -platform win32-g++ -silent -release -opensource -no-compile-examples -no-icu -opengl desktop -skip qtscript -nomake examples -nomake tests -skip qtwayland -skip qtwebview -skip qtwebengine -skip qtwebchannel -no-qml-debug -confirm-license

Attaching the relevant config and build output.

UPDATE: It doesn't fail immediately if the -silent flag is removed from the configuration, which begs the question why and how is it a problem, considering that all it is supposed to do is reduce the compiler output to warnings and errors???