fwiw, with my backup script, every time it is run, creates an temp link, run rclone, then deletes the link.
i do this as part of creating a VSS snapshot, which is the source for rclone.
this is using variant #3 from my handy, dandy wiki
https://github.com/rclone/rclone/wiki/How-to-enable-VSS-for-rclone
mklink /d b:\snapshot\ %shadow_device_1%\
rclone sync b:\snapshot\data\ dest:data
rmdir b:\snapshot\
another workaround, also from my wiki, but using variant #2
rclone lsd c:\
2023/12/11 13:49:59 ERROR : : error listing: directory not found
2023/12/11 13:49:59 Failed to lsd with 2 errors: last error was: directory not found
net use x: \\localhost\c$
The command completed successfully.
rclone lsd x:\
-1 2023-06-16 09:45:13 -1 $Recycle.Bin
-1 2023-11-30 20:05:18 -1 Program Files
-1 2023-11-13 18:17:01 -1 Program Files (x86)
-1 2023-10-02 09:43:11 -1 ProgramData
-1 2023-12-10 12:46:21 -1 System Volume Information
...