> That function is currently only used to find the wheels that are temporarily added to sys.path

I understand, but *IF* this was a real bug before (for "installations that muddle virtualenv_support with (obsolete) symlinks"), then it could still be a bug now... i.e. you could find a symlink, instead of a real whl file.

BUT I'm ok with closing.  if @hylje wants to chime in to explain better how this can occur, then we can re-open.