Firstly this post is different than other post on this error because it first works and then does not.
When pulling and installing an image from an ansible playbook with the tasks delegated to my remote docker host everything works, but when trying to use the connection plugin from the same collection (community.docker)
I get

fatal: [localhost -> instance-139.xxx.xxx.xxx]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "docker command not found in PATH"
}

I’ve seen one or two similar post, but they all speak of having a different the issue being a user that potentially lacks access. For my situation the user is the exact same (root). I would like to know why it works with everything but the connection plugin.

Error: fatal: [localhost -> instance-139.xxx.xxx.xxx]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "docker command not found in PATH"
}

Truncated version of my ansible playbook

- name: Create an API instance
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  collections:
    - linode.cloud
    - community.docker
  tasks:
    - block:
      - name: Linode IPS
        debug:
          msg: "{{ linode_ips }}"
      - name: Update apt and install dependencies
        apt:
          update_cache: yes
          name: "{{ item }}"
          force_apt_get: yes
          state: present
        loop:
          - apt-transport-https
          - ca-certificates
          - curl
          - gzip
          - software-properties-common
          
      - name: Add Docker GPG key
        apt_key:
          url: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg
          state: present

      - name: Add Docker repository
        apt_repository:
          repo: deb https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal stable
          state: present

      - name: Install Docker
        apt:
          name: docker-ce
          state: present
          force_apt_get: yes
          update_cache: yes

      - name: Start and enable Docker
        systemd:
          name: docker
          state: started
          enabled: yes

      - debug:
          msg: "Registry: docker.registry.aksantinet.com/{{ host_group }}"

      - name: Pull the image from the registry
        community.docker.docker_image:
          name: "docker.registry.aksantinet.com/{{ host_group }}"
          tag: latest
          source: pull

      - name: Run Docker container
        community.docker.docker_container:
          name: "{{ container_name }}"
          image: "docker.registry.aksantinet.com/{{ host_group }}"
          network_mode: host
          state: started
          capabilities:
            - NET_ADMIN
          devices:
            - /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
          privileged: yes 
        become: yes
        
      - name: Copy LetsEncrypt from ansible to Docker
        become: yes
        block:
        - lineinfile:
          path: "test"
          line: "example"
          create: yes
          state: present
        - ansible.builtin.copy:
            src: /etc/letsencrypt/
            dest: /etc/letsencrypt/
        - shell: nginx
        vars:
          ansible_docker_host: "{{ container_name }}"
          ansible_connection: docker
      - name: Instance added
        debug: 
          msg: "Addded instance at {{ linode_ip }}"
      delegate_to: "instance-{{ linode_ip }}"