I had not thought of that.
There is a really big feral male who I see maybe once a month. I assumed he was the papa. None of the kittens look like him tho. Three of the 5 looked a bit like mama.
Because some colors and patters are recessive it is not uncommon for first gen babies to not resemble their parents at all... because they are probably splits, having one recessive gene but not visually showing the recessive trait. They may look plain jane but pair two splits with one or more fancy or colorful recessive traits and the fancy colors will emerge in half their offspring.
But pair them with another split or one that looks like one of their parents, and then most of the kittens look like grampa and grandma.
Some genes for color can also mask others- in cockatiels the white can mask the yellow of a normal bird, as well as the orange spot on the cheek. It may be some colors in cats can mask others as well. I don’t know cat genetics...but in birds there are also sex-linked mutations that confuse things, too.
Cats can be impregnated by more than one male at a time, too, so I understand.