croat
You will never get a fine for that in Germany, it is almost impossible, because firstly, you need to be spoted from police officer, secondly, he need to see if the car is idling, third thing is that that police officer must be an idiot when writing you a ticket because of cold weather....so chanses are zero...
Oh, I agree with you a 100%, that’s why the ”technically illegal”.
I saw the driver revving a bit, going out, clearing ice/snow (for a few minutes), go back in and drive away; had he been inside the whole time, I wouldn’t consider it a violation, as he could just be checking his phone/gps for directions.
But yeah, you won’t ever get a ticket for this unless you insult the officer, but it is still not allowed, just ignored