there are two vfs caches - vfs dir cache and vfs file cache
--dir-cache-time applies to vfs dir cache
--vfs-cache-mode applies to vfs file cache
take a read of my post
https://forum.rclone.org/t/status-about-using-rclone-for-music-storage-playback-in-2021-access-times-improved/27648/34
fwiw, most of the time, i do not use the vfs file cache, in effect --vfs-cache-mode=off