Pipelines batches metadata

Hello everyone! I have a question about variable pipelines_batches_metadata_to_keep.
I read in the document that this variable limits the number of pipeline batches in the information_schema.pipelines_batches table. It defaults to 1000. But when I count distinct from this table, I see that the number of batches is much larger (about more than 10,000 batches).
Am I understanding this variable correctly?