cannot patch .gradle file

Trying to patch a gradle script (which is part of an npm package)

I tried
`
yarn patch-package @react-native-community/cli
`

and
`yarn patch-package --include ./node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle @react-native-community/cli
`

The error I get is:

```
$ /home/v/myproj/FRONTEND/rn.common/node_modules/.bin/patch-package --include ./node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle @react-native-community/cli
patch-package 6.2.2
• Creating temporary folder
• Installing @react-native-community/cli@4.8.0 with yarn
• Diffing your files with clean files
⁉️ Not creating patch file for package '@react-native-community/cli'
⁉️ There don't appear to be any changes.
error Command failed with exit code 1.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.
```

but the change is there, as I modified
./node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle