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?