Mutate with key not causing fetcher to run

[ThiagoMaia1]

I have a HOC to encapsulate form components in order to not render them until the validation has been run, because if the form component gets initialized with cached data it won't be reupdated after the revalidation, something like this:

useEffect(() => {
      if (isValidating) {
        setNumberOfTimesThatHasBeenValidating((n) => n + 1);
      }
    }, [isValidating, setNumberOfTimesThatHasBeenValidating]);

    const requiredNumberOfTimes = 1;
    const hasValidatedRequiredNumberOfTimes =
      (numberOfTimesThatHasBeenValidating >= requiredNumberOfTimes &&
        !isValidating) ||
      numberOfTimesThatHasBeenValidating > requiredNumberOfTimes;
    if (!hasValidatedRequiredNumberOfTimes) {
      return <>{fallback}</>;
    }
    return <RealComponent />

The idea is that when the isValidating turns true and then false, a validation has happened. I previously had implemented with a single boolean state variable "hasValidatedAtLeastOnce" and I thought it worked fine, but then I noticed that even when I use mutate() the isValidating becomes true and false one time before the fetcher function runs. What is that supposed to mean? Why is it that isValidating becomes false if the fetcher hasn't been run? What is being validated then?

Is this behaviour consistent enough that I can safely implement this just raising the required number of times to 2? Setting "shouldRevalidate" on mutate to true doesn't seem to make a difference either.

[ThiagoMaia1]

I did manage to reach the desired result using cache.delete(key) instead of mutate, but I don't understand what is the point of shouldRevalidate if this is case... Also, it seems to be working when I use bound mutate instead of mutate(key). Not sure if this is related to the fact that when I use boundMutate the component that has useSWR with the relevant key is mounted.