[BUG] Installing with --prefer-offline does not work if dependencies are not available in the cache

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

% npm i --prefer-offline
npm ERR! code ETARGET
npm ERR! notarget No matching version found for @vaadin/scroller@24.1.0-alpha8.
npm ERR! notarget In most cases you or one of your dependencies are requesting
npm ERR! notarget a package version that doesn't exist.

Expected Behavior

It should fetch the missing version from npmjs.com, like npm i does. That is the whole point of using --prefer-offline offline instead of --offline

Steps To Reproduce

Using

{
  "name": "no-name",
  "license": "UNLICENSED",
  "type": "module",
  "dependencies": {
    "@vaadin/scroller": "24.1.0-alpha8"
  }
}

run npm i --prefer-offline

Environment

• npm: 9.5.1
• Node.js: v18.16.0
• OS Name: macOs Ventura
• System Model Name: Mac M1
• npm config:

ignore-scripts = true 

Start with the package.json dependency on @vaadin/scroller@24.1.0-alpha8 and reproduce the issue using npm i --prefer-offline; compare it with npm i and --offline. Done means a missing dependency is fetched from npmjs.com under --prefer-offline instead of producing ETARGET.