When formatting an external HDD as APFS with Disk Utility in Big Sur, why does it still first say "Formatting diskxxx as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a case-insenstivie HFS Plus volume?

I bought a new external hard drive HDD to create a Time Machine Backup.

Apple now recommends formatting any external Time Machine backup as APFS.

When I use Disk Utility to do this, I see the initial message as "Formatting disk3s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Time Machine, followed by "Initialized /dev/rdisk3s2 as a 7 TB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 524288k journal". Screenshots and disk utility log below.

Why is it doing this even though it ultimately creates an APFS container?

(My initial Time Machine backup is taking an abysmally long time. I have used Time Machine for many years and know that it should not be this slow, even via USB to HDD. Wondering if this has anything to do with it....?)

Thanks for help.

Tell Disk Utility to format drive as APFS:

Initially, Disk Utility creates an HFS Plus volume, then later adds an APFS container

Log from Disk Utility after selecting APFS:

Erasing “Mercury Elite Pro Media” (disk3) and creating “Time Machine”

Unmounting disk

Creating the partition map

Waiting for partitions to activate

Formatting disk3s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Time Machine

Initialized /dev/rdisk3s2 as a 7 TB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 524288k journal

Mounting disk

Creating a new empty APFS Container

Unmounting Volumes

Switching disk3s2 to APFS

Creating APFS Container

Created new APFS Container disk4

Preparing to add APFS Volume to APFS Container disk4

Creating APFS Volume

Created new APFS Volume disk4s1

Mounting APFS Volume

Setting volume permissions

Operation successful.