This is what I can see on my side at link time:
x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-g++ -Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,--hash-style=gnu -Wl,-z,lazy -Wl,-rpath-link,/usr/lib64 -o whatsie singleapplication.o singleapplication_p.o SunClock.o about.o automatictheme.o dictionaries.o downloadmanagerwidget.o downloadwidget.o elidedlabel.o lock.o main.o mainwindow.o permissiondialog.o rateapp.o settingswidget.o utils.o webenginepage.o webview.o scrolltext.o qrc_icons.o moc_singleapplication.o moc_singleapplication_p.o moc_about.o moc_autolockeventfilter.o moc_automatictheme.o moc_dictionaries.o moc_downloadmanagerwidget.o moc_downloadwidget.o moc_elidedlabel.o moc_lock.o moc_mainwindow.o moc_notificationpopup.o moc_permissiondialog.o moc_rateapp.o moc_requestinterceptor.o moc_settingswidget.o moc_utils.o moc_webenginepage.o moc_webview.o moc_scrolltext.o -L/usr/X11/lib -lX11 /usr/lib64/libQt5WebEngine.so /usr/lib64/libQt5WebEngineWidgets.so /usr/lib64/libQt5WebEngineCore.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Quick.so /usr/lib64/libQt5PrintSupport.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Widgets.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Gui.so /usr/lib64/libQt5QmlModels.so /usr/lib64/libQt5WebChannel.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Qml.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Network.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Xml.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Positioning.so /usr/lib64/libQt5Core.so -lGL -pthread
while scanelf -n reports:
$ scanelf -n /usr/bin/whatsie
TYPE NEEDED FILE
ET_EXEC libX11.so.6,libQt5WebEngineWidgets.so.5,libQt5WebEngineCore.so.5,libQt5Widgets.so.5,libQt5Gui.so.5,libQt5Network.so.5,libQt5Positioning.so.5,libQt5Core.so.5,libstdc++.so.6,libm.so.6,libgcc_s.so.1,libc.so.6 /usr/bin/whatsie
So, in the practice it forces me to have /usr/lib64/libQt5QmlModels.so (there are more examples above), but in the practice whatsie is not linked against it.
If I don't have /usr/lib64/libQt5QmlModels.so at build time it fails (expected) in that way:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/11.2.1/../../../../x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ld: cannot find /usr/lib64/libQt5QmlModels.so: No such file or directory
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:445: whatsie] Error 1
While if I don't have it at runtime it works as expected.
You can test this behavior by temporarily move the affected libraries, e.g:
mkdir tmplib
cd tmplib
mv /usr/lib64/libQt5QmlModels.so* .
# to revert back
mv * /usr/lib64/
require investigation