So I decided that if I need to get this to work, I'll have to copy the folder in question (C:\ProgramData\VMware\CIP\csd) to somewhere else where it will get captured into the Appstack, and then use the allvolattached.bat script to copy the folder and its contents into the appropriate place and trigger the ipfconfig /flushdns for this to work. Haven't really tested this, but will try it out.
EDIT: confirmed that it does work with the above method. I copied the CIP folder to C:\ProgramData and used allvolattached.bat script to copy the folder to the correct place (Powershell Copy-Item C:\ProgramData\CIP\ C:\ProgramData\VMware\ -Recurse) and trigger DNS flush (ipconfig /flushdns). Note for someone else who may attempt to do this...