# Given playbook.yml

- name: PLAY 1 | Group VMWare Guests by guestfamily
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  tags: [ group_hosts ]
  tasks:
  - group_by:
      key: >-
        {%- if hostvars[inventory_hostname].guest.guestfamily == 'linuxGuest' -%}
        Linux
        {%- elif hostvars[inventory_hostname].guest.guestfamily == 'windowsGuest' -%}
        Windows
        {%- else -%}
        Unknown
        {%- endif %}

- name: PLAY 2 | Connect to Linux hosts
  hosts: Linux
  tags: [ linux_hosts ]
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    - ansible_user: "ansible"
    - ansible_password: "password"
  tasks:
    - ping:

- name: PLAY 3 | Connect to Windows Hosts
  hosts: Windows
  tags: [ windows_hosts ]
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    - ansible_user: "Administrator"
    - ansible_password: "password"
    - ansible_connection: "winrm"
    - ansible_winrm_transport: "basic"
    - ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation: "ignore"
  tasks:
    - win_ping:

# Given playbook invocation 1

ansible-playbook -i vmware_inventory.py playbook.yml

# Resulting PLAY RECAP 1

- Linux and Windows hosts reachability, "ok", "changed", and "failed"
  are as expected
- Unkown group's hosts appear in play recap with "ok"=1
  even though they were involved in play 2 or 3

# Given playbook invocation 2

ansible-playbook -i vmware_inventory.py playbook.yml --tags "group_hosts,linux_hosts"

# Resulting PLAY RECAP 2

- Linux hosts reachability, "ok", "changed", and "failed" are as expected
- Unknown and Windows hosts show up in play recap with "ok=1"
  even though no "real plays" were ran against them

QUESTION 1: Is there a way to suppress a specific play's hosts from showing up
in the Play recap?  In the above playbook, I'd like to suppress PLAY 1 from
showing up in PLAY RECAP because it is only grouping hosts for the subsequent
plays to work against.

QUESTION 2: Is there a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do given I'll
be running "playbook.yml" against both VMWare and Azure dynamic inventory scripts?