High temperature conversion of the starch into sucrose derivatives/equivalents.
Pancreas gets confused.
I par-boil [all] my taters in pH-water of about 7.8 prior to frying / air-frying.
Yep...even the frozen ones.
Crispy & crunchy.
I do too. A hefty teaspoon+ of baking soda to heavily salted water for the par-boil. They end up super crispy.
Also, the high frying temperatures change the seed oils used into plastics................