Why is Bokashi composting not done under water?

I'm puzzled about this. Bokashi is supposed to be anaerobic lacto-fermentation, like with sauerkraut, but they also say to make sure it's not too wet, because that will cause foul smells and other bad outcomes. But lacto-fermentation is generally done completely under water (as with sauerkraut), so I don't understand why Bokashi wouldn't also work completely submerged. What am I missing here?

You could do it that way I think. But not all anaerobic fermenting is done in brine. Japanese nukazuke is done in wet (but not watery) rice bran. And essentially this is what bokashi came from. The idea for fermenting food was copied to fermenting compost using most of the same ingredients.

I should have qualified that statement: I "surmise" the process was copied from fermenting food a la nukazuke. I might be wrong about that.

There are several different composting techniques maybe these threads might be of interest:

https://permies.com/t/48546/Beginning-bokashi

https://permies.com/t/11246/bokashi

https://permies.com/t/45807/Compost-anaerobic-aerobic

https://permies.com/t/93069/Experimenting-anaerobic-composting-works

https://permies.com/t/83299/Jadam-aerobic-anaerobic-bacteria

I do my bokashi all soaked in its own brine. I use that brine for backslopping to inoculate when I start a new bucket. That way I don‘t have to buy anything. - I suspect that „drain it“ is a plot by sellers of commercial bokashi gear to keep people hooked on buying their consumable inputs like sprays and flakes and whatnot.