Does the DBUS API prevent obtaining GATT information without a connection?

Does the DBUS API prevent obtaining GATT information without a connection?

[Jake Rue]

I was looking for a newer and more supported way of collecting GATT
information, rather than gatttool, which I understand to be
deprecated. I was looking at bleak (https://github.com/hbldh/bleak) as
a potential python-based wrapper.

However, when I try to use it to collect information from an AppleTV
which I can collect successfully with gatttool, it errors out with
"bleak.exc.BleakDBusError: [org.bluez.Error.Failed]
br-connection-unknown". I eventually tried the same thing with
bluetoothctl and it gave the same-ish error of "Failed to connect:
org.bluez.Error.Failed br-connection-unknown".

So the difference seems to be that bleak/bluetoothctl try to connect
to the AppleTV (which it rejects, if I don't go accept the pairing on
the TV itself), whereas gatttool doesn't make a full
connection/pairing attempt?

The bleak developers said that this is a limitation of the DBUS API,
and that there's no way to get GATT information without a connection.
Is that correct?

Cheers - Jake