The reason is that VS 11 Express doesn't support building native Windows Application anymore.
Users of VS 11 Express can only build Metro Apps, nothing else.
And to prevent the possibility to build native Windows Applications by just using the Win8 SDK via command line or with an alternative IDE, they removed the compilers, linkers and so on.
Ms should be ashamed to squeeze the hobbyist programmers.
However, maybe one can build native Windows Applications with the Win8 SDK by installing VS 11 Express, the Win8 SDK and then using an alternative IDE or just via command line.