What does the mining skill "preparation" actually do?

[KageTokage]

I have a hunch the reason bots use Preparation is actually as a toggle for starting/stopping their script without having to interact with something outside of the game itself.

I've seen some of the regulars on my server acting normally in towns right up until the moment where they turned on Preparation, after which they immediately started behaving strangely. It's especially noticeable if you hang out in the Firmament in the later hours of the day as you're bound to spot some people initiating a Diadem botting script before they go to sleep.