I created a new instance with docker-compose (using autoinstall) where the env variables
- FRIENDICA_LOGFILE=/tmp/friendica.log
- FRIENDICA_LOGLEVEL=debug
- FRIENDICA_DEBUGGING=true
are set.
Executing into the friendica container before trying to register the admin user showed that no log has been created. The env variables passed are available.
After registering the admin user with bin/console user add and logging into the instance the Logs settings under Admin showed:

It seems obvious that the log is not created and logging not enabled as expected.