Strange flags for yt-dlp

[memaxwelll]

Hey there!

I have an error that I cannot explaind and that I have been trying to figure out for the last few days.
Basically my yt-dlp flags look strange (at least in my opinion) and I cannot figure out why.
The problem persists since 13th of January 2025 and I haven't been able to download a single video since then.

10:16:34.665 [error] [command_wrapper]: /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp called with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsdndm6y9O4 --simulate --skip-download --output /downloads/12TB2/%(uploader)s - NA - %(uploader)s_-_Videos [%(channel_id)s]/%(uploader)s - %(upload_date>%Y%m%d)s - %(title)s[%(id)s].%(ext)s --remux-video mp4 --format-sort res:1080,+codec:avc:m4a --format bestvideo*+bestaudio/best --print-to-file %(.{id,title,live_status,original_url,description,aspect_ratio,duration,upload_date,timestamp,playlist_index,filename})j /tmp/pinchflat/data/26/9d/269d0c67b0cbd59bbb585819d82d65c8d301b2db0122abab3c79616ee740efaf.json --sleep-requests 12 --sleep-interval 13 --sleep-subtitles 11 --windows-filenames --quiet --cache-dir /tmp/pinchflat/data/yt-dlp-cache exited: 1 with: ERROR: [youtube] fsdndm6y9O4: Video unavailable. The uploader has not made this video available in your country

Basically the "Video unavailable" part is (I think) irrelevant for this case.
What I am more interested in are the flags --simulate and --skip-download why are they here?
Maybe I just don't understand and it has always been like this.
I don't know what to search for anymore.

yt-dlp is version 2025.01.15
Pinchflat is version 2025.1.17

pinchflat-logs-2025-01-18.txt