> The Help file does seem to indicate that there is a space before the %d data.
couldn't find a reference to be interpreted in this way!?

> The Help file only shows single digit days as examples, but there are 2 spaces before the day digit.
yes indeed but only with %(j)d & its siblings!
created a test file with tweaked timestamps + a (nonsense) line mask: "%1"!!"%d"!!"%dm"!!"%dc"!!"%da"!!!!"%j1"!!"%jd"

result:
"R:\00\test.txt"
" 31-12-2022 23:59:59"
" 31-12-2022 23:59:59"
" 25-01-2021 17:11:00"
" 25-01-2023 17:12:25"

"R:\00\test.txt"
" 31-12-2022 23:59:59"

if day and/or hour are single digits you'll get - no surprise - two spaces ...
none of the other batch parms do this, so I'd call it a buglet, IMHO ...