Redirect backlink from Google.com, only for false DA / PA / DR metrics? Why and how?

I noticed some strange backlink profiles like these:

• https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2F####INSERT-ANY-DOMAIN-HERE####%2F
• https://medium.com/r?url=https%3A%2F%2F####INSERT-ANY-DOMAIN-HERE####%2F

These links open a redirect page with the “backlink” pointing to the target domain.

How do they trick Ahrefs into counting this in their metrics?

I assume it’s not worth anything in the real world - it just manipulates Ahrefs/MOZ metrics that shows backlink from Google.com.

These redirects used to work to artificially inflate third party metrics - Ahrefs has filtered out the *.google.com domain redirects for a while now but I think Moz still lets people get away with it. Like you say it's not worth anything except to make a domain/link look juicier to the uninformed who just glance at a big number and think they've struck gold.

You're right to question it.
Those redirect links from Google or Medium don’t pass any real SEO value ,Google completely ignores them.
But tools like Ahrefs or MOZ sometimes log them because they only see the referring domain, not the redirect flow.
So it creates this illusion of a powerful backlink, when in reality it’s just noise.
It’s mostly used to manipulate metrics for domain flipping or fake outreach value.
Looks good in a report, but Google won’t count it ,and it won’t help your rankings.