Why can't unused columns and tables be ignored in a recursive CTE

Usually, SQL Server can optimize away any unused columns in the execution plan, and unused joined tables are not queried. But as soon as a recursive CTE comes into play, apparently all columns and joined tables are queried, even if not necessary. Why is that? Can I help SQL Server to ignore unused columns/tables here?

Example:

;WITH cte AS(    SELECT cn.CatalogNodeId,           cn.ParentId,           cn.CatalogNodeType,           (SELECT Name FROM dbo.LocalizedCatalogNodes WHERE CatalogNodeId = cn.CatalogNodeId) AS Name    FROM dbo.CatalogNodes AS cn    WHERE cn.ParentId IS NULL    UNION ALL    SELECT cn.CatalogNodeId,           cn.ParentId,           cn.CatalogNodeType,           (SELECT Name FROM dbo.LocalizedCatalogNodes WHERE CatalogNodeId = cn.CatalogNodeId) AS Name    FROM dbo.CatalogNodes AS cn    JOIN cte ON cte.CatalogNodeId = cn.ParentId)SELECT CatalogNodeId FROM cte

This is a simple recursive CTE resolving a hierarchical parent-child structure, adding a localized name to each node.

Even though not necessary, the execution plan shows that column CatalogNodeType is retrieved and dbo.LocalizedCatalogNodes is joined for each iteration.

Now comment out the UNION ALL part making it a non-recursive CTE, and the execution plan suddenly consists of just two steps, not containing column CatalogNodeType or table dbo.LocalizedCatalogNodes.