You are quite right of course. I forget that most don’t have my background in radio and are often hoodwinked by misleading “analyses” and advertising.

While this might be obvious to you, it might be an ah-ha moment for someone else

Of course they do, how would half an antenna work otherwise?

Probably also a good idea to drop a ferrite bead or twelve on the feedline...

Good analysis of end-fed verticals (based on a CB antenna but applies to all "halfwave" antennas) - TL;DR they excite the feedline and produce unpredictable patterns unless you have a good radial system.