yeah, you are completely wrong.
there is a whole table of "functions" (https://hashcat.net/wiki/?id=rule_based_..._functions) and $, ^, T, D, O, x etc are not referring to the password at all (none of them "are the password" itself or referring directly to it)... you are probably just "thinking" about it might work like you just described, but the whole page literally says that these are all rule functions.
there is a whole table of "functions" (https://hashcat.net/wiki/?id=rule_based_..._functions) and $, ^, T, D, O, x etc are not referring to the password at all (none of them "are the password" itself or referring directly to it)... you are probably just "thinking" about it might work like you just described, but the whole page literally says that these are all rule functions.