DB access during “bin/magento setup:di:compile”

I have a project in which DB access is happening during the DI compilation process. My understanding is that there should be no DB access while running bin/magento setup:di:compile. When I test this theory on a default installation of Magento it holds up. No database access during DI compile. (My testing process is to shut down the DB and then run bin/magento setup:di:compile)

I tried removing every custom module from my project, but DB access still happens.

The progress bar says 100%, but then something at the very end attempts DB access. What could this be?

For reference composer.json. And app/code/ directory is empty.

    "require": {
        "magento/product-community-edition": "2.4.3"
    },
    "require-dev": {
    },