[Python] Why doesn't Maya's "closeTab" flag actually close the tab?

Long story short: I can't seem to get Maya's "closeTab" flag to actually close the tab I give it. I need to run a function when a tab closes so I can't just use the default method of closing tabs.

Full story: I'm building a tool in Maya 2025 using Python and Maya's API. It's a window with tabs and it stored which tabs are open in a node so it remembers your tabs when it's closed. So I need it to run a function when tabs are closed to remove the closed tab from the node.

Looking at the documentation, (https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2025/ENU/Maya-Tech-Docs/CommandsPython/tabLayout.html) I need to use the "closeTabCommand" to run a script when a tab is closed, and I'm familiar with these kinds of flags in Maya. But now, instead of the "close" button closing the tab, it only runs the script.

So I tried adding the "closeTab" flag to the script, but it doesn't seem to actually close the tab.

This is the current function that I have for closing a tab.

def close_tab(self, layout):
"""
Closes the current tab.
"""
#List all tabs, get the selected tab, get the selected tab's index.
allTabs = mc.tabLayout(layout, q=True, childArray=True)
selectedTab = mc.tabLayout(layout, q=True, selectTab=True)
tabIndex = allTabs.index(selectedTab)
print(f"{allTabs=}, {selectedTab=}, {tabIndex=}")
mc.tabLayout(layout, e=True, closeTab=tabIndex)

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