Illustrator treats a compound path as a single entity, no matter how many singular paths it has inside.

Layers panel does not display '>' next to the name of it, and does not allow to unfurl the item to see what it has inside.

It makes sense in a way, since the order of items does not matter (it is for a Compound Shapes, where it matters a lot, with e.g. 'Minus Front').

At the same time, we can still select a subpath of a compound path with the Group Selection tool, and use Object > Arrange commands (even though there is no visible result when we do that).

But having these in a Layers tree can help.
We can quickly evaluate the number of children objects, their own shapes with thumbnail previews rendered, quickly select one we need there and not on canvas... after all, it’s not something like a Dimension Object, which is a complex construct, not intended for direct editing, but a basic universal object, created to be edited!

There are other limitations with subpaths of a compound path...
...like the inability to Allow to set key object inside compound path:
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34270678