Miner Configuration – Is it possible (or not) to mine Bitcoin using Bitcoin Core v0.21.1?

Before you tell me, yes, I know that CPU mining is dead in 2021 and that if you try to do that, you will most likely just be wasting CPU time for no reason.

But my question is not whether mining is possible, but whether mining is possible. possible It uses the (currently) latest version of Bitcoin Core v0.21.1. From what I understand it was possible in 2016, but in v0.13.0 the internal miner was “removed”. Looking at the code, I’m not sure if that’s still possible. For example, miner.cpp still exists. All that remains is the “-generate” option. Will this option actually allow me to mine on mainnet?

If the answer is no: isn’t Bitcoin Core meant to be a reference implementation of Bitcoin? Isn’t it a little strange, then, that the reference implementation includes one of Bitcoin’s core components: a mining system? I understand that it would be pointless to do so. But as a reference implementation, shouldn’t Bitcoin Core provide this functionality regardless?