This project and subthread provide one reason a clone can be necessary: submodules. The zip doesn't include any submodules, and it doesn't include the metadata

This project and subthread provide one reason a clone can be necessary: submodules. The zip doesn't include any submodules, and it doesn't include the metadata necessary to go and download the submodules either. This project cannot be built from the zip; the NFs folders are all empty.