Why did simplescreenrecorder make a useless black screen "video"?

Under fedora 44 workstation,

why did simplescreenrecorder make a useless black screen “video” ?

Short answer: Probably because you are using Fedora’s default Wayland session and this tool does not support Wayland or your compositor.

With the screen capture tool that comes with the Gnome desktop, did you test?
While clicking on the video-cam you should be able to record the screen, window etc.