Unix Pageant is in a tricky position as a hybrid CLI/GUI application.
It has uses even in a purely CLI environment, but it won't build
without libgtk-3-dev and friends.
The solution, of course - enabled by the migration to cmake - is to
allow it to build without GTK, leaving out just the GTK askpass
functionality. That way you can still use it in any of its CLI modes,
either as a non-graphical SSH agent or as a client for an agent
elsewhere.
(You can still even use it in X lifetime mode, because its connection
to the X server is done using PuTTY's built-in X authentication and
connection setup code. It's only putting up the password prompt window
that you lose in this configuration - so you're still fine as long as
you don't try to add any encrypted keys.)