Yes, to prove, get any crack exe and run pexplore on it. Very likely you will see some Delphi dfm or list of units compiled into the constant area.

I think I misunderstood - I thought you meant there was a way to ship slim c# exe files.

Yes there is, with .NET Core you just ship everything together, it no longer depends on the installed runtime.

You can also AOT compile to a pure binary .exe with Mono or the ongoing CoreRT being developed.

UWP apps are compiled to a static executable via .NET Native compiler (uses VC++ backend).

oh no, I wouldn't even dare try that.