2024-05-23, 06:07 PM
Ah there we go...
The actual culprit is the Missing Episodes Fetcher provider, which actually turns out to be part of TheTVDB provider. If this is disabled, ghost seasons stop spawning. The <episodeguide> tag is a red herring, as apparently, while it's written, it's not actually getting read.
This does not conclusively answer my initial question (can I just reload NFO without referencing online sources?) but at least it solves the immediate problem I had.
The actual culprit is the Missing Episodes Fetcher provider, which actually turns out to be part of TheTVDB provider. If this is disabled, ghost seasons stop spawning. The <episodeguide> tag is a red herring, as apparently, while it's written, it's not actually getting read.
This does not conclusively answer my initial question (can I just reload NFO without referencing online sources?) but at least it solves the immediate problem I had.