There is a page in documentation that explains how to disable activation workflow (https://documentation.magnolia-cms.com/display/DOCS/Disabling+activation+workflow), when you disable the activation workflow for Pages app, and instead use:

default-activate just activates the content. No workflow, no versioning.
versioned-activate activates and versions the content. No workflow.

Variants are not published, since these commands don´t use personalizationActivation command, as it is used in workflow-activate.

It would be great if we can add a comment about it.

If the command is changed directly in /modules/activation/commands/versioned/activate/activate@commandName, it will affect to all workspaces. So maybe it would be better create a new command based on versioned-activate command, but using personalizationActivation command, and use this command stead.