Airpods Pro Lost Mode not working as it should be

I recently lost my Air Pods Pro, and i activated the Lost Mode. Supposedly the lost mode won't allow any user to be able to pair with it, but the thief kept the airpods and I was wondering why he even kept it. I can track where he is, but i was wondering why in the world would he keep if he can't even pair it?

THEN i bought another air pods pro, activated the lost mode, only to find out that people can still pair with it. It only says that the owner can track.

Is this a bug? Wasn't the Lost Mode whole update suppose to not allow people to pair with the device?