High Prepared_stmt_count after freeing statement handles

When using prepared statements with SQLPrepare, the Prepared_stmt_count increases on MariaDB (when shown with SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE 'Prepared_stmt_count'). It does not decrease when calling SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, stmt) on the statement handle that was made as a prepared statement. Disconnecting and reconnecting, however, does lower the Prepared_stmt_count.

On long-lived connections or connections with many prepared statements, this can have the effect of throwing errors like:

STATE 42000: ODBC ECode 1461: EMsg [ma-3.2.2][11.4.2-MariaDB-log]Can't create more than max_prepared_stmt_count statements (current value: 16382)

Attached is a test program that demonstrates this.

Expected Output:
Initial - 0
After SQLExecDirect - 0
After SQLPrepare - 1
After SQLExecute - 1
After SQLCloseCursor - 1
After SQLFreeHandle - 0
After Reconnect - 0

Actual Output:
Initial - 0
After SQLExecDirect - 0
After SQLPrepare - 1
After SQLExecute - 1
After SQLCloseCursor - 1
After SQLFreeHandle - 1
After Reconnect - 0