Yes, it does.

Whatever I turn tab-bar-mode on or not, C-x t 2 is always able to create a
tab-bar.

The reddit guys also use this bug (I think it a bug) as a workaround to
hide the bar-bar.

https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/fh3f4a/is_it_possible_to_use_tabbarmode_but_hide_the_tabs/


On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 7:30 AM Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net> wrote:

> >> M-x customize-variable RET tab-bar-show RET
> >
> > tab-bar-mode is disabled after customizing tab-bar-show, but tab-bar-mode
> > is still functional.
> >
> > It's confusing.
>
> Please explain what do you mean by saying that tab-bar-mode is still
> functional.
> Can you still switch tabs with the tab bar?
>