How have I been able to make Ad-hod builds/upload to App Store Connect without a distribution certificate

I intentionally deleted iOS development/distribution related certificates from my keychain (Login, Local Items, System, System Roots).

Then built my app in Xcode. Automatically manage signing is turned on and Xcode created/installed an Apple Development certificate to my keychain).

But if I create an archive, I am able to successfully create a development distribution, an ad-hoc distribution, and even upload to App Store Connect. Yet I don't have a distribution certificate anywhere in my keychain. I therefore don't understand how this was possible. How could I create all those distributions without a distribution certificate in the keychain?

How have I been able to make Ad-hod builds/upload to App Store Connect without a distribution certificate
 
 
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