Browning is chemistry with a speed limit set by temperature. The Maillard reaction follows Arrhenius kinetics: nearly asleep at boiling temperatures, it wakes up fast once the surface passes about 140 °C.
Water is the gatekeeper. A wet surface pours all the pan’s heat into evaporation, pinning the temperature near 100 °C — the boiling plateau. Until the surface dries, the reaction simply cannot start.
Char is a different reaction — pyrolysis — with a higher activation energy. It stays quiet through the golden window, then past roughly 185 °C it overtakes browning and turns the crust black and bitter.
That separation between the two reactions is why there is a narrow flavor window: golden-to-deep-brown is the peak, and the hotter you run, the faster you skate past it.
Something in the simulation stopped unexpectedly — the lesson continues without it. Nothing you did was wrong; you can move on.