Reactor dependency resolution fails invoking the initialize phase, expected?

[lppedd]

My project is setup in the following way (simplifying a bit):

A (Super/Aggregator POM)
-- B (Aggregator POM)
---- D (eclipe-plugin)
---- E (eclipe-plugin)
---- F (eclipe-plugin)
-- C (Aggregator POM)
---- G (eclipe-plugin)
---- H (eclipe-plugin)

I have a plugin goal bound to the initialize phase, which goes through dependencies and copy some files using the Dependencies Plugin.
Now, invoking mvn clean compile at the root (A), I see that everything runs fine. The reactor summary is ok.
However, invoking mvn clean initialize, as I don't really need compilation, fails with

[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  03:09 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2022-08-31T09:58:14+02:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal on project E: Could not resolve dependencies for project E:eclipse-plugin:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT: Failure to find D:jar:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT in https://my-nexus-repo/zeus was cached in the local repository, resolution will not be reattempted until the update interval of zeus has elapsed or updates are forced -> [Help 1]

Both E (which depends on D) and D are correctly shown in the Reactor summary

[INFO] Reactor Summary:
[INFO]
[INFO] A   15.1.0-SNAPSHOT SUCCESS [  2.012 s]
[INFO] B   15.1.0-SNAPSHOT SUCCESS [  0.033 s]
[INFO] D   15.1.0-SNAPSHOT SUCCESS [  0.452 s]
[INFO] E   15.1.0-SNAPSHOT FAILURE [  0.048 s]
[INFO] F   15.1.0-SNAPSHOT SKIPPED

Is this expected to happen?

Edit: btw, I have the tycho-build extension correctly installed, if that matters.

Further edit:
This is the debug log from the Reactor for project E:

[DEBUG] === PROJECT BUILD PLAN ================================================
[DEBUG] Project:       E:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT
[DEBUG] Dependencies (collect): []
[DEBUG] Dependencies (resolve): [compile]
[DEBUG] Repositories (dependencies): [Local Aqua (file:///C:/my-local-repo, p2, disabled), eclipse.repository (http://my-remote-repo/eclipse-subset/, p2, disabled), zeus (http://my-remote-repo/zeus, default, releases+snapshots), jboss (http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/, default, releases+snapshots), central (https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2, default, releases)]
[DEBUG] Repositories (plugins)     : [jboss-public-repository-group (http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/, default, releases+snapshots), central (https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2, default, releases)]

What is the line [DEBUG] Dependencies (resolve): [compile] referring to?

Another detail:

[DEBUG] Could not find metadata D:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml in local (C:\Users\edoardo.luppi\.m2\repository)
[DEBUG] D:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml was not found in http://my-remote-repo/zeus during a previous attempt. This failure was cached in the local repository and resolution is not be reattempted until the update interval of zeus has elapsed or updates are forced
[DEBUG] D:15.1.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml was not found in http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/ during a previous attempt. This failure was cached in the local repository and resolution is not be reattempted until the update interval of jboss has elapsed or updates are forced