The process run by Gradle to execute a build is the same whether or not you enable or disable the daemon. The behavior of the process after a build completes is the difference.
With the daemon enabled, the process will continue running in the background and can reused for a subsequent build. With the daemon disabled, the process is terminated at the end of the build. Even with the daemon disabled, you will still see a process labeled as a daemon. It doesn’t mean it will continue running in the background like a daemon.