YouTube Handle unavailable but not taken by anyone?

Hi, recently I've made a YouTube channel and am looking to start uploading videos, however, upon trying to claim the handle that I would like to claim I've encountered something strange and honestly really frustrating. I'm unable to claim the handle that I'm trying to claim because "This handle isn't available." AND YET, when I search for the YouTube channel that supposedly has the handle that I want to claim, it DOES NOT EXIST.

"This page isn't available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else."

Any variation of trying to find any YouTube channel with this handle that I want does not exist.

youtube,com/user/

youtube,com/c/

youtube,com/@

Even just youtube.com/

NONE of these link to a YouTube account with the handle that I'm trying to claim. What's even more infuriating is that there doesn't even exist a YouTube channel with the same name or even of similar name, only ONE, and the one that I found already has a handle that isn't the one I'm trying to claim.

I've tried talking to YouTube support and all they do is inform me of the same handle requirements that are on the page. Character requirements and lengths, etc. The only thing I can think of is that there's a private YouTube account that was automatically assigned my handle, but even then that doesn't seem fair or even make sense.

I hope that there are some who may relate to this post or could provide me with some insight or even some hope for the future :)