Time machine back up (including first!) only includes Alias

Hello,

I have a MBP with M1, operating macOS Monterey (v. 12.6.1). I have recently set up Time Machine automatic backups using an external hard drive (My Passport for Mac). I have made about 4 backups now.

Going through them, including the earliest backup, and I realized the first backup does not seem to contain a hard copy of the Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders. To me it looks like Time Machine did not copy/paste these folders into the external hard drive. If I click the folders I go back to the ones on my computer, weather if I click other folders/files that are not alias, they open from their copy on the external hard drive, and not the original version on the computer. These folders are not excluded from my Time Machine backup. It makes sense a copy was not made, since I remember thinking my first backup only took a few minutes!

Is this how Time Machine is supposed to work?