fstab automatically creates mount points

This used to be true, and still is if you wish to use the classic mount command.

In recent years, the entries in /etc/fstab are mounted at boot time by systemd, which automatically creates missing mountpoints as needed, irrespective of the presence of the X-mount.mkdir option.

It also provides the command systemd-mount as an alternative to mount, should you wish to mount a partition yourself without first manually creating a directory to mount over.

And here the essential parts from the documentation:

Mount units may either be configured via unit files, or via /etc/fstab
(see fstab(5) for details). Mounts listed in /etc/fstab will be converted
into native units dynamically at boot and when the configuration of the
system manager is reloaded. In general, configuring mount points through
/etc/fstab is the preferred approach. See systemd-fstab-generator(8) for
details about the conversion.

Further down you'll find this:

Where=

    Takes an absolute path of a file or directory for the mount point;
    in particular,the destination cannot be a symbolic link. If the
    mount point does not exist at the time of mounting, it is created
    as directory.