The reason why both sides reached a disengagement deal was because China dropped its initial conditions of "equidistant disengagement'" which would have required India to completely leave the finger area, in the fall.
This is what China had been demanding in earlier talks.
For some reason, China dropped its conditions between the 5th and 6th round of talks. Exactly why is debateable.
There were also no major clashes in fall/winter of 2020, at least not according to any reputeable sources
India denied pulling back its forces further because it already pulled back. China demanded India pull back twice while China only disengaged a forward position.
You can summarise it this way if the line is in the centre, China went a step forward. India remained in same, China swapped its step forward in exchange for India taking a step back and agreeing to not patrol beyond the step back it took. Then China demanded India step back again and India refused because it already lost two important things - 1. Its original position and 2. agreeing to not patrol and step within the disputed... something it was doing prior to China taking the step forward.
The net effect is China remains in original position (prior to everything) while India is a step behind and lost patrolling rights which it was doing MUCH more than China to the point of it worrying China so much that it responded with military force.
all of those photos were from Galwan, where disengagement occurred in July 2020.
Yeah the photos and videos released by China were said by the leakers (state endorsed) to be from June 2020 and prior to that, as I've mentioned in my post if you read it.
The question I was raising was that in light of hints emerging that there were violent clashes in October/November of 2020 which resulted in "significant Indian losses" and two PLA killed, makes you wonder if those photos released for June clashes were some sort of warning to the Indian side that details of late 2020 clashes may be revealed by China. This goes back to my previous posts about Chinese side having extracted all the benefits out of leveraging forward positions to secure buffer agreements out of India. Since we know that agreements were made in December 2020, since then, China's had no more leverage to secure any further buffer that can seal off Aksai Chin. We haven't heard any progress for further buffer deals and every demand China has made since extracting its leverage has been met with Indian refusal. I theorised before that China's strategy post securing two sets of limited buffer from India, is by opening AP front and pressuring Modi through providing his political oppositions with anti-Modi material. The issue with that Modi's replacement may be more difficult to settle disputes with.