The requests get traced even without verbose logging.
I expect it was a copy&paste mistake from QTRACE docs.
.. py:attribute:: REQTRACE
- Pretty-print DNS requests from clients into the verbose log. It's useful for debugging weird DNS clients. Verbose logging must be enabled using :func:`verbose` for this policy to be effective. It makes most sense together with :ref:`mod-view`.
+ Pretty-print DNS requests from clients into the log.
+ It's useful for debugging weird DNS clients.
+ It makes most sense together with :ref:`mod-view` (enabling per-client)
+ and probably with verbose logging those request (e.g. ``DEBUG_ALWAYS``).
.. py:attribute:: DEBUG_ALWAYS