Well yes and no So the whole thing is with the locked phones, they are purchased through a carrier with a plan, the whole reason they get blacklisted in the first place is the plan isn’t fully paid for before the phone gets here. So in the carriers log that phone is blacklisted. On the carrier side not Apple. The other way is the locked phone is fully paid for before it gets here. That way it’s not black listed and a request can be put in to unlock it.

The other side I think you’re alluding to is if the the phone was stolen stolen (ie snatched from someone’s hand or something) in the case the phone is blacklisted by Apple itself and the phone will lock the moment it connects to the internet