[tryauuum]

can it even be considered a firewall if it's running in an "audit only mode"?

[TeMPOraL]

(Corporate IT sec answer): it says "firewall" in the name, so yes.

[jiggawatts]

This is the correct answer!

Every corporation over a certain size has a rule that everything needs a firewall in front of it… even if the something is a cloud service that only listens on port 443.