No, it's not that. The VotesPA site tells me my ballot request was approved, and the ballot was mailed to me on 9 October.
I didn't check the mail today, but as of latish last night, it hadn't arrived.
It also turns out that we DO have early in-person voting. But only at a few places. You can even make an appointment, and they recommend that. I got an announcement about that by snail mail yesterday.
Voting started on 10 October.